Mainebiz

V O L . X X V I N O. X X I I S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 2 0 16 H E A LT H C A R E / W E L L N E S S H ome has been lonely during the pandemic for 73-year- old Portland resident Mary Gagnon, but a bit less so thanks to regular check-ins with a virtual medi- cal care team through a touch-screen tablet and phone calls. "It's easy to use, and the fact that you're being observed without any intrusion I think is great," she says of the device that helps her manage chronic conditions including heart trouble, diabetes, COPD, arthritis and fibryomyalgia. Multiple times a day, she's asked how she feels and about her breathing, and gets reminders about when to take her temperature, use an oximeter to measure blood-oxygen levels and when to take different medications. "It's good to have someone keeping an eye on me so my children don't have to do it every day," says Gagnon, who lives in Avesta Housing's subsidized Butler School building in the city's West End. "Somebody else does it." Gagnon is among more than 60 Avesta Housing residents — most of whom are seniors or disabled — using a tablet provided free of charge by Senscio Systems, a Boxborough, Mass.-based telehealth solutions developer, in part- nership with Avesta. Senscio's Ibis service, which would cost uninsured members between $125 and $225 a month, includes a 10-inch tablet to report daily symptoms, medical equipment to monitor temperature and other vitals, a dedicated Ibis physician to create a care plan and routinely review health data. Users are also assigned a member advocate to connect them with community resources, and care is coor- dinated with their primary care doctors and specialists. Like many of her neighbors, Gagnon is a convert to technology — and using it for medical care — dur- ing the pandemic. Besides the tablet, she's been using Zoom to talk with her doctors even though "I don't like anything complicated." Virtual tele- medicine medicine visits have spiked during COVID-19 and become popu- lar with older adults. Even before that, Maine's profile as the nation's oldest state was an attraction for Senscio Systems, along with having the largest proportion of people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, according to co-founder and CEO Piali De. e India-born, Ivy League- educated physicist and inventor founded the Senscio Systems in 2010 with her husband, Hugh A. Stoddart, and late father-in-law, Hugh F. Stoddart, whose illness informed much of what they built. Today the company employs about 30 people. at includes eight in Maine, where it opened an opera- tions center in Scarborough just before COVID. It plans to hire more than 500 in the next three years. ough the company has been in the telehealth business for five years, De says the pandemic has turned it into a "hot field" that's here to stay. In Senscio's case, it's not just a matter of providing artificial intelligence-pow- ered smart devices and remote services. It is also gathering and using data to change patient behavior — including by catching problems a human doctor might not — as well as to improve care for specific populations. "We're telehealth with a capital T," she says of Senscio, whose pilot program with Avesta was launched in 2019 and really took off during the pandemic. Senscio is active in three states, with more than 650 people so far — including those currently being enrolled — using the Ibis program and technology to manage chronic C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 1 8 » F O C U S We're telehealth with a capital T. — Piali De Senscio Systems P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY 1 Projected from 2018 commercial and Medicare spend, using National Health Expenditures. S O U R C E : McKinsey & Company OUTPATIENT AND OFFICE VISITS THAT CAN BE VIRTUALIZED Some $250 billion, or 20%, of all Medicare, Medicaid and commercial outpatient, office and home health spend, could potentially be virtualized Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid 2020 estimated 1 Piali De, co-founder and CEO of Senscio Systems, says the Boxborough, Mass.-based telehealth solutions developer plans to hire up to 500 people in Maine in the next three years. It has an operations center in Scarborough. Total OP, office, and home health spend Non- virtualizable visits/spend Virtual urgent care Virtual office visits Near-virtual office visits Virtual home health services Tech-enabled home medication administration 20% of emergency visits diverted 24% of all office and outpatient visits 9% of all office and outpatient visits 35% of home health services 3% of all office and outpatient visits $1.25 trillion $1.004 trillion $35 billion $126 billion $39 billion $35 billion $12 billion VIRTUAL REALITY M E D I C I N E ' S N E W Telehealth poised for further growth in Maine B y R e n e e C o R d e s

• Cover