Study Highlights Clinician Perspectives on ESitter’s Role in Epilepsy Care
Medical Student Kelly Fisher Presented the Research at the American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting
A novel electronic system may help clinicians remotely track patients in an epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) and prevent adverse events, according to research presented by Kelly Fisher, SOM Class of 2027, at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) annual meeting. The ESitter system allows clinical care team members to watch patients remotely 24/7 on video and communicate with them through a microphone.
“With the EHealth program recently being introduced into the EMU at Westchester Medical Center, we were curious to see how clinical care team members reacted to the ESitter push button system,” says Fisher, who worked alongside Manisha Holmes, M.D., associate professor of neurology and of neurosurgery, and Harli Weber, M.D. ’24, on the project. The researchers surveyed EEG technicians, nurses, epileptologists, and the EHealth care team in the unit to gain insight into their attitudes toward ESitter.
“While one-on-one staffing provides the highest level of safety, staffing shortages and cost can limit that availability,” says Fisher. “Overall, we found a lot of agreement by the clinicians we surveyed that ESitter improved patient safety.”
After conversing with many healthcare professionals at the AES conference, one of Fisher’s biggest takeaways was the importance of investigating medical care team members' attitudes when utilizing new technology for patient care. “Data analysis is important for determining efficacy and efficiency of new equipment, however, it is also important not to overlook the perspectives of all members of the clinical care team when implementing new policies and patient care practices. I appreciated hearing perspectives on EMU monitoring practices from clinicians from around the world, as it opened my eyes to the vast diversity in patient care experience globally.”
