US study finds that using automated texts to monitor Covid-19 patients at home saved lives

University of Pennsylvania Hospital has a texting 'bot' to help determine which Covid patients need to go to the hospital. —The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

PHILADELPHIA: Just two weeks after Covid-19 shut Philadelphia down in March 2020, Penn Medicine had already reengineered a program designed to monitor lung disease patients so that its staff could keep tabs on those suffering from the new virus at home.

Doctors quickly realised there was a "huge swath" of patients who had tested positive but were not sick enough for the hospital — yet, said Krisda Chaiyachati, medical director of Penn Medicine OnDemand. By then, it was clear that people with COVID-19 who at first seemed fine could deteriorate rapidly. As a result, many were already extremely sick — sometimes too sick — by the time they got to the emergency department.