While Louisiana consistently ranks low on national health standards, rural residents are particularly affected by a lack of access to health care — which has potentially devastating consequences.
Through its rural health initiative, Louisiana nonprofit HeartSense works to reduce heart disease disparities by providing access to health care to underserved communities across the state.
HeartSense found that of the nearly 6,000 patients the organization has served in the past two and a half years in Louisiana — mostly adults — 20% had some form of heart disease. unrecognized, said co-founder Dr. Antoine Keller. .
“Many of these people have not been diagnosed long enough until they end up having a heart attack and present themselves in the emergency department. The disease usually does not change at that time,” he said. Keller, a heart surgeon at Ochsner Lafayette Medical Center.
But new technologies, including artificial intelligence and telehealth, can help close the access gaps rural residents face.
In its public health services across Louisiana and beyond, HeartSense uses innovative technology that combines AI and a digital stethoscope to help diagnose heart disease. The machine visualizes the sound of blood moving through the heart and the AI then compares that view with hundreds of thousands of others to detect abnormalities that indicate disease.
The FDA approved the technology, including an AI algorithm to detect heart failure, on April 2, 2024.
In fact, technology has the potential to expand many ways to care for rural patients.
“It’s really changing the way we identify and manage people who have early intervention for heart disease in a community that doesn’t have access to doctors or physicians,” Keller said, with technology enabling advocates. of public health to identify patients in need. professional care and referral to appropriate providers.
Overcoming barriers
Barriers to access can take many forms, from lack of transportation or local providers to cultural reluctance and fear.
“They feed off each other,” Keller said.
Technology, he noted, helps overcome many barriers by providing the first step in caring for an environment that patients can easily access and become familiar with, such as a community center or church.
“You have to meet people where they are so they feel comfortable,” Keller said.
Maintaining human contact is essential to providing adequate care supported by new technology, said Denae Hebert, executive director of the Louisiana Rural Health Association.
AI can be useful as a diagnostic tool, he noted, “but we want to be careful about relying too much on technology and losing the use of human medicine,” Hebert said.
Overall, Hebert notes, there are significant opportunities to expand care through the use of technology, especially the telephone. At the height of the coronavirus outbreak, the Louisiana Rural Health Association has allowed increased use of telehealth services among rural providers and patients. The organization has been working hard to advocate for the expanded use of the telephone, as well as making permanent exceptions.
“We’re really advocating that those rewards be permanent, so providers can invest in staff and technology to provide those services for a long time,” Hebert said.
Many patients struggle to make late appointments due to lack of transportation.
“It’s very difficult to get patients to make regular visits, let alone follow-up visits, when transportation is a barrier for many patients,” he said. “If you can monitor them remotely, that it will be very useful to help keep them on track.”
Despite significant technological advances, structural challenges – such as the lack of reliable, affordable internet in rural areas – still need to be addressed.
“It’s not a silver bullet that will solve access to care issues, but it’s one of the most important tools we can use,” Hebert said.
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