Amwell rolls out new telehealth platform that integrates with digital health tools

Building on the massive shift to virtual care in the past year, telehealth giant Amwell launched a new telehealth platform with an open architecture to support other digital health applications like remote monitoring.

Amwell unveiled its new telehealth platform, called Converge, as its annual client forum event, that enables all of the company's products, programs, modules and devices, as well as applications from third parties, to be available in one place with a single code base, the company said.

“Digital distribution of care is here,” said Roy Schoenberg, M.D., president and co-CEO at Amwell in a statement. “Telehealth morphed, almost overnight, from a promising technology to an existential platform in the operation of healthcare—alongside EHRs, claim systems and e-prescribing. We are witnessing a new consensus that the future care of any one patient will inevitably involve a mix of physical, digital and asynchronous/AI-based care."

Amwell designed the new telehealth platform is designed to be flexible and scalable to offer clinicians and patients a "seamless and unified care experience," company executives said.

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The platform’s open architecture can host and operate applications from digital health companies to enable a range of capabilities for providers.

As part of the new platform, Amwell is working with Google Cloud to leverage the tech giant's artificial intelligence and natural language processing technologies to provide real-time captioning and translation services. This helps to advance provider choices for patient education by surfacing related health education materials based on a patient’s visit. AI-powered tools will engage patients and their care teams before, during and after visits to drive better health insights and outcomes, company executives said.

Amwell also is integrating virtual visits with TytoCare's handheld exam kit featuring built-in visual guidance technology to support improved diagnosis and treatment during telehealth visits.

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Other features of the platform include integration with virtual medical second opinions through Amwell's joint venture with Cleveland Clinic. By tapping into The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic, users of the platform can request virtual second opinion services for patients, connecting them to one of 3,500 Cleveland Clinic physicians in over 550 advanced sub-specialties.

Amwell also is integrating the telehealth platform with a remote patient monitoring platform. Biobeat provides a tool for the continuous monitoring of 15 vital signs including blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygenation and respiratory rate through either a wrist monitor for long-term use and a disposable chest monitor for short-term use.

A Biobeat app would enable providers to receive alerts on patient health status and potential deterioration via an AI-powered, automated real-time early warning score system.

During the event Wednesday, Amwell offered a peek at its forthcoming home TV solution. Developed in collaboration with Solaborate, the home TV Carepoint device uses advanced AI to bring hospital care into the home environment via an easy-to-use TV-based experience, company executives said.

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“We realize that transformation is all about partnership and collaboration,” said Ido Schoenberg, M.D., chairman and co-CEO at Amwell in a statement. “By bringing together Amwell’s best-in-class solutions with those from across the ecosystem, we are uniquely able to deliver a solution that both supports a long list of capabilities across the full care continuum, from episodic to longitudinal care, and enables native connectivity between all players."

He added, "We also understand that these players have unique needs, and these needs will evolve, so we have built the Converge platform to be highly scalable, modular and future-ready, giving clients the ability to reimagine new ways of using telehealth over time.”

The Converge platform features enhanced reliability and simplicity with fast and reliable video and audio connections and the ability to easily upgrade those components over time, according to the company.

The platform can be integrated with existing workflows, EHRs, patient portals and consumer experiences, to support the delivery of care no matter where the patient or provider originates and resulting in faster and easier deployment.