Vision AI Pioneer Intellisee CCO: Healthcare Delivery Organizations Should Embrace AI Cameras

Quick Summary

• SaaS-based vision AI pioneer IntelliSee leverages existing camera infrastructure to create safer, more secure healthcare settings for patients by acting as an emergency trigger for spotting dangerous situations.

• AI continues to ripple through and affect society in profound ways. Still, it’s, a mistake to view it as a single entity: Different models — including language, knowledge, reasoning, and perceptual — exist in silos, serving various purposes and functions. How each technology is used depends on humans.

• Security is layered, and AI is but just one of those layers. The best way to apply advances in AI is to combine them with human guidance to slip and fall maximize patient care quality, safety, and security.
  

For healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs), patient care and security is the clear and obvious number one priority. From simple slip-and-fall insurance cases to more serious active shooter situations, monitoring cameras can — when deployed correctly — help improve the safety of patients, staff, and visitors alike.

So why aren’t more HDOs using vision AI technology to achieve this outcome?

Vision AI SaaS company IntelliSee is best placed to answer that question. “You'd be surprised at the number of healthcare facilities that do not have IP [internet protocol] cameras — or do not have working cameras,” Maureen Pajerski, the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of IntelliSee, says. But AI-powered cameras are coming, and HDOs that are behind the curve on new technological developments should take the opportunity to proactively update their systems for better patient and staff safety.

Given that hospitals are frequently rated as more violent workplaces than jails in terms of physical assaults, the pressure is on to improve security within healthcare settings. The solution is straightforward: IntelliSee applies vision AI developments to existing camera infrastructure. HDOs can easily benefit from this new wave of improvements, provided they reach out to their local integrators for support and pay attention to and test new technologies.

The Right Angle on Vision AI

IntelliSee is a software as a service (SaaS) and Internet of Things (IoT) company with a single, clear mission: to improve the security of those in healthcare settings. It does this by applying advanced vision AI and leveraging “existing camera systems, which is key because every building has already spent an enormous amount of money on cameras,” Maureen highlights. Rather than training people on how to use new products, they want to interface with products people already know and understand.

As an open integrations platform, IntelliSee partners with systems integrators, which includes original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and value-added resellers (VARs). But from a go-to-market (GTM) standpoint, the company opts for the reseller channel for two primary reasons. First, VARs already have relationships with their customers meaning IntelliSee doesn’t have to build them. But just as crucially, when these customers deploy IntelliSee, they “almost always end up adding cameras,” Maureen says. “We don’t sell or install cameras — we just interface to their live stream, so we need a channel to support them.”

The most challenging aspect of deployment, she says, is identifying which cameras IntelliSee should monitor, as not all cameras are equally useful in where and how they’re set up. Distances and views matter: For example, detecting a gun from the top of a multistory building roof isn’t viable, unless radar technology with zoom capability is implemented.

Thereafter, it’s a matter of determining the total number of cameras and connecting them to the network and internet via the data center. Predictably, this is easier to do with centralized camera architecture, because decentralized architecture requires separate appliances for each camera on the network. “Every system gets smarter based on all of the other customers that are using the product,” Maureen says.

Active Shooter Protocol

Maintaining safety in hospital settings can often be as routine as establishing liability for slips and falls and creating environments where this is less likely to happen. But sometimes it’s more serious: Staff often deal with gunshot wounds, members of the public approaching with guns, and sometimes even pursuing patients.

It’s easiest to view IntelliSee as an emergency alert that automatically triggers based on what connected cameras see. Mass notification via overhead paging — rather than text or email alerts — alerts people to  “high-end, stressful, catastrophic, emergency situations,” Maureen says. 

“[Cameras’] are used extensively to try to improve security,” Maureen says. “But the truth of the matter is that they don't do anything to improve security.” That, of course, is without using AI. 

Vision AI combined with mass notification systems — like overhead paging — can help manage active shooter events in hospitals with different codes. 

Maureen points out that these codes are not consistently applied. But just as with "Code Blue" — signaling life-threatening situations like cardiac arrest to the appropriate clinicians and doctors on duty — they help security guards within hospitals to appropriately manage and de-escalate potentially dangerous situations before disaster strikes. 

Security Is All About Layers

The primary issue that IntelliSee finds in potential customers is that so many HDOs either don’t have internet protocol (IP) cameras or rely on outdated analog equipment — immediately making them a poor fit for vision AI deployment. Quite simply, they lack the infrastructure, which is a critical element of IntelliSee’s ideal customer profile (ICP).

But for those hospitals in tougher areas and buildings that are open to the public, focusing on patient and staff security and safety means taking a traditionally reactive approach and making it proactive. Instead of viewing cameras purely as forensic devices for insurance companies to determine liability in slip and fall cases, IntelliSee’s solution encompasses everyone who sets foot in the hospital with a comprehensive approach to safety.

Maureen readily admits that even vision AI-powered cameras, while powerful, can easily be fooled if active shooters conceal weapons in backpacks, for example. While IntelliSee offers infinitely better monitoring than humans alone, AI doesn’t understand object permanence as a human child does. AI’s real potential lies in how human beings can use and collaborate with it. The ICP for vision AI cameras are customers both attentive to and realistic about viewing security as layers — including the all-important human element.

“People ask me a lot, should we automate our lockdown if [the camera] tells us it sees a gun?” Maureen explains. “And I say, you really shouldn't, because the truth is that the probability of something looking like a gun is far higher than the probability of a gun. IntelliSee needs human eyes on it, as well.”

How Do You Manage AI Hype (and Fear)?

The use of AI in all industries is still in its infancy. But ChatGPT’s release took the world by surprise. And while fear of job losses across the board is as high now as it was for weavers during the Industrial Revolution, job creation is more likely — just as it was then.

IntelliSee sees itself as carving a path forward across a new frontier. “This space reminds me of the early internet days when there were hundreds of players all battling it out,” Maureen says. “And it's a race to the customer because whoever gets the best data gets a smarter and better platform.” 

Central to IntelliSee’s mission is ensuring that vision AI is used for good — despite its potential to be used for purposes like ethnic group identification. “It’s only as good as the data,” Maureen says, whose view is that ChatGPT made everyone more aware of what technology actually exists and is already being used — whether or not people realize it.

When solution providers and integrators proactively talk about AI, they help reassure the people using the technology that it’s safe. Just like protected patient information (PPI), data-driven AI-based technology can and should be treated with respect, instilling confidence in customers that there won’t be any serious breaches.

To this end, IntelliSee doesn’t take customer data off-site — customers have complete control and power of their video data and what they send to IntelliSee. It also only trains its model on video footage from security cameras rather than across the entire internet.

Final Thoughts

Young companies like IntelliSee frequently have longer roadmaps and bigger appetites than they do resources. However, due to the rapid evolution of AI, iterations and updates come thick and fast.

“We'll be able to monitor more cameras for less power, with less costly appliances,” Maureen says. IntelliSee also expects to be able to fine-tune the model based on customization for each customer, rather than running the same model across all customers. Currently, customers are seeing fewer (and sometimes no) false positives, even as they’re attempting to trick the AI systems into improving it.

“AI as part of hospital camera systems is going to be the standard in a few short years,” Maureen says. Ultimately, HDOs must be proactive about reaching out to their local integrator for support. “It is going to change the way they deliver safety to their staff, visitors, and patients.”

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Maureen Pajerski is the Chief Commercial Officer of IntelliSee, with over 30 years of experience in sales and marketing leadership. Her expertise includes driving consistent, profitable growth and dominant market share by focusing on strategies that support customer and channel success. Throughout her career, she has worked with both manufacturers of mass notification security systems and systems Integrators specializing in technologies related to the implementation of layered security — including critical crisis communication in schools and hospitals.

Lone Star Launches Alairo® Solutions

Quick Summary

• Jeff Richard has been named President of Lone Star Communications’ Alairo Solutions Group, which builds on Lone Star’s legacy by helping customers get the most out of new and existing technology systems.

• By providing innovative tools focused on fall prevention, alarm analytics, and unified hospital messaging and communications, Alairo hopes to fill persistent gaps in the clinical practice environment, with fall prevention its top priority.

• Alairo’s different functionality modules form a unified whole that will integrate seamlessly with the rest of Lone Star, assuring stability for existing customer relationships.
  

In keeping with its mission to make healthcare communities safer by delivering “the right product, on time, first time, every time,” Lone Star Communications has named former CTO Jeff Richard as president of the company’s Alairo Solutions Group.

Made up of a small team of Lone Star members and tech companies Lone Star has invested in, Alairo’s nurse call-centric platform has a threefold focus: fall prevention, alarm analytics, and unified hospital messaging and communications.

The group’s goal of helping customers get the most out of new and existing technology systems makes it a natural progression for the Lone Star family—building off the company’s 32-year legacy by offering expanded healthcare solutions and consulting to its customers while filling persistent gaps in the clinical practice environment.

“In the past we may have been limited as to some of the things we could do beyond our core business,” says Kenny Schiff, director of analytics for Lone Star and Alairo’s director of marketing, “but Alairo offers an opportunity to take all the things we do great, and do so much more with it.”

Filling the Fall Prevention Gap

In sticking to its core business and the relationships that have made the company so successful, Lone Star recognizes there are opportunities in the healthcare environment to provide an augmentative solution, and Alairo fits the bill perfectly.

“We have a real opportunity to stand behind what we say we're going to do and transform healthcare through innovation,” says Jeff Richard. “We've spent a lot of time evaluating where the gaps are with the customers and listening to our customers, but also evaluating the technologies that would help fill those gaps.”

The largest of these, by Richard’s reckoning, is in fall prevention. With patient falls accounting for up to 30% of all hospital-acquired injuries—there are up to one million falls in the U.S. every year, costing over $34 billion per year—Alairo’s AI-powered predictive analytics can accurately identify patients most at risk of falling. The resulting increased patient safety comes with better caregiver efficiency and significantly reduced costs associated with fall-related injuries.

Richard acknowledges there are many competing tools and fall prevention bundles in the current environment, but he underlines their lack of success in reducing falls. “Patients are still getting injured and length of stay is growing,” he says.

Analyzing Alarms and Sharing Data

While fall prevention is currently its primary focus, Alairo continues to refine its alarm analytics and hospital messaging platforms.

With alarm analytics, Alairo is able to help hospital staff identify false alarms and nuisance alarms, which can be time-consuming and disruptive for healthcare providers. In analyzing this data, Alairo can optimize alarm settings, fine-tune thresholds, and reduce unnecessary alarms, freeing up staff to focus on critical tasks and patient care.

Alairo’s machine learning algorithms can also identify potential hazards before they occur, giving caregivers the tools they need to provide proactive care—which can lead to better outcomes for patients and reduce caregiver workloads.

Powered by Vizabli, Alairo’s unified hospital messaging and communications platform brings together a dynamic flow of information between patient engagement, clinical engagement, and family updates. This allows data to be synchronized across mobile devices, interactive digital displays positioned inside and outside patient rooms, and larger wall displays that replace traditional marker boards at nursing stations.

Maintaining a Consistent Relationship with Customers

Aside from their clear benefits, Alairo’s offerings are integrated into the greater company so that, from the customer’s perspective, nothing will change in their existing relationship with Lone Star. End users will continue to reach out to the same people they’ve worked with, with Alairo being accessed as needed. The new technology will be incorporated seamlessly.

“The 32-year reputation of Lone Star is quite strong and has great relationships,” Richard says, “and a lot of time has been spent cultivating relationships with our customer base.”

Ideally, according to Lone Star CTO Justin Bailey, customers won’t even know it’s an integrated solution. “To them it's [just] one thing,” he states, “and that thing is Alairo.”

A Unified Whole

By working together so closely, Alairo’s different functionality modules tie in to Bailey’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek conception of a “grand unified theory of healthcare.” To him, this encompasses cutting-edge technology made up of best-in-breed components contributed by Lone Star’s ongoing partners.

“We've brought them in,” he explains, “and actually built a system together to maximize the value that each [partner] brings to the table.”

Richard reinforces this, adding, “I think we've done a great job pulling together a meaningful group of solution owners—some of which Lone Star owns—in a comprehensive way to complement and augment not only the nurse call system, but other clinical solutions in the environment.”

A Focus on Measurable Results

Looking forward to his new role as the group’s president, Richard’s plans include continuing to improve Alairo’s technical aspects, attracting investment partners to help spread Alairo’s reach in the clinical practice environment, maintaining a laser focus on fall prevention, and finding opportunities to make an impact as quickly as possible in order to best serve Lone Star’s customers.

If nothing else, Schiff believes, Alairo is able to provide end users with measurable results. “The promise for our customers,” he says, “is to not only give them the technology and services necessary, but to show that it actually works, and there's evidence to support that.”

In the bigger picture, Lone Star’s leadership will continue to invest heavily in innovation and expanded consultative services, creating a unified whole designed to improve patient care, caregiver welfare, and hospital operations and metrics across the industry. 

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Before being appointed President of Alairo Solutions Group, Jeff Richard was Lone Star Communications’ CTO. Prior to that he was a customer of Lone Star while working at Baylor Scott and White—one of the largest health systems in the U.S. His 23 years of experience in the healthcare industry and as a business owner have left him with strong leadership skills combined with clinical and operational experience in building and leading teams.

As Lone Star Communications’ R&D Director & CTO, Justin Bailey is responsible for leveraging new technologies to improve patient and caregiver experience. He has been with Lone Star since the late 1990s.

Mate: Bringing a Circadian Twist to Hospitals

Quick Summary

• Mate, a circadian rhythm lighting company, hopes to transform healthcare by introducing a brand of LED technology that not only improves wellness for patients and hospital staff but reduces energy and construction costs for healthcare facilities.

• By mimicking the pattern and color temperature of the sun, Mate’s lighting reflects the body’s natural rhythm and helps produce the appropriate levels of melatonin for reduced and better sleep.

• With its low-cost, low-maintenance implementation and ability to monitor itself on a granular level, Mate’s system is poised to move beyond healthcare to education facilities, senior living centers, factories, and other large commercial buildings where shift workers would benefit.

There’s more to a hospital patient’s health and well-being than a comfortable bed and attentive staff. Rest is a big part of the recovery process, and it’s something that can be in short supply amid the hectic environment of most healthcare facilities.

For many patients, what makes a proper night’s sleep especially elusive is the type of lighting they’re exposed to—lighting that, in most facilities, is completely at odds with their natural sleep cycles.

Jenn Upton knows a thing or two about quality lighting and how crucial it is to balanced, restful recuperation. Along with her husband, JD, in 2016 she co-founded Mate, a circadian rhythm lighting company with the mission of transforming healthcare by promoting wellness and restful sleep for patients while reducing energy consumption at hospitals and medical centers.

Getting Past Traditional Lighting

Armed with a background in control and automation, Jenn’s initial R&D into the state of the industry began with studying LED technology and how it was being incorporated into the healthcare market space. To her surprise, she found it was being used in the same way as traditional lighting. Nobody had thought about it from a fundamental standpoint, which left her thinking about what good lighting would look like and how it could be optimized.  

That took her down the road to circadian rhythm lighting. If light could be used to mimic the sun, she reasoned, it could offer benefits to wellness and other aspects of daily life—especially in the healthcare industry.

Around the same time, she had the painful experience of seeing her grandmother pass away from dementia. “She would walk the halls at night,” Jenn says. “She was out of tune, she didn't know what time it was.” It seemed to Jenn that improved lighting could have helped her grandmother’s condition. 

This brought a new level of personal investment to the project, which in turn led her down “a deep rabbit hole of developing hardware, acquiring and writing our own patents,” and learning more about how LED technology could help save energy for facilities. 

What is Circadian Rhythm?

Circadian rhythm is the body’s internal clock telling our brains when to wake and when to sleep. It’s regulated partly by the amount and quality of light—warm in the morning, cool throughout the day, warmer again in the evening—which adjusts the melatonin levels that help us sleep, something that’s especially important for patients in a care facility. 

“And what you'll notice,” says Jenn, “is when you are more in rhythm, more in tune with the sun, that's when you feel your best.” 

“Throughout the day,” she continues, “as the light becomes lighter and brighter—some may say it looks more blue—that's when you're suppressing your melatonin levels. It's telling your brain, ‘I should be awake’.” 

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about blue light technology and the need to avoid screens before bedtime. That, Jenn says, “is because blue light is telling your brain, ‘Hey, it's high noon, it's noon time, not evening.’ So removing that blue light helps your melatonin levels rise to where they should be so that you have a great night's sleep.” 

The Typical Hospital Lighting Experience

In the majority of healthcare environments, lighting is purely functional. Unlike at home, where you can get different color temperature bulbs for your kitchen, living room, bedroom, or garage, hospitals typically buy a default light fixture with, at best, dimming capability. 

According to Cliff Switzer, an innovation specialist for Lone Star Communication who has been working closely with the team at Mate, “The industry as a whole has pretty much said: These are the standard light fixtures we install, this is the standard temperature. They're more concerned with dimming than they are with the actual temperature of the light.” 

With 27 years of experience, Cliff knows the ins and outs of the industry. But it wasn’t until he swapped out the lights in a few patient rooms that the benefits of circadian rhythm lighting became clear. The difference was immediately apparent. 

“It is one of those things you can't pick up on video,” he explains. “You have to actually be in the room and experience the actual lighting and then walk into another room. It's one of these ‘feeling’ things that’s not something you can really pick up and see unless you're there.” 

Before the renovation, the lighting in one facility had been so bad that white clothing glowed like a novelty poster under black light.  

“It was way too much blue light in the room,” he says. “We all know not to use your [mobile] device before you go to bed, but they were just pumping blue light into the room. So it was a major difference.” 

Benefits to Nursing Staff

Patients aren’t the only ones to experience increased wellness from proper lighting. With healthcare workers on night shifts shown to face higher than average health risks, hospital innovation centers have begun to recognize the clinical benefits of good lighting and the reduced stress levels that result. These benefits extend to all parts of a facility—locker rooms, cafeterias, break rooms, and any other public areas frequented by clinicians and others on the nursing side.  

“I think some of the commercial industries have figured this out,” Cliff says. “If you go to Vegas, they've got the lights pretty much tuned to keep you awake, trying to keep you at the machines. But it's one of those things where it is moving into healthcare as well.” 

More than just Health Benefits

But it’s more than just a quality-of-life issue. Along with the wellness benefits it brings to patients and staff, Mate’s technology addresses the ever-tightening budgets faced by today’s healthcare facilities.  

“Mate saves more than 60% in energy costs for facilities,” says Jenn. “When you look at that over an annual cost budget, that's very significant.” 

“The energy savings aspect was really surprising,” Cliff says. According to the veteran innovations specialist, “We were so focused on circadian that the 60% reduction in power is really due to there not being AC to DC conversion at the light fixture—which actually makes the light fixtures more cost-effective.” 

Mate’s non-proprietary, standard LED light fixtures are also more reliable. The failure point in traditional fixtures, Cliff explains, “is the AC to DC conversion, not the actual LED. So that's a big maintenance issue for hospitals.” 

Cutting the Customer's Construction Budget

As a technologist in the integration business, it’s Cliff’s job to solve customer problems and offer a variety of solutions. And he’s found Lone Star’s customers especially receptive to this new technology and what it means to their bottom lines.  

“The biggest factor is the construction budgets,” he says. “We're currently in talks with a couple different engineering firms and with some of our customers to basically get this spec’d and engineered into construction projects—which is a big thing because we're talking about saving the electrical IDF footprint or saving conduit costs where all the light fixtures are going to be wired with low voltage cabling, so there's no more conduit and electrical.” 

What that translates to is an electrical footprint reduced from 20 breakers and 20 circuits to a single breaker that can run up to a hundred light fixtures. And because those fixtures are wired with low-voltage cabling, there are no conduit or electrical costs during construction—contributing to a tremendous savings. 

When it comes to retrofitting already existing facilities who are looking to replace their current lighting with Mate’s low-voltage system, the same math applies.  

“It's been a tremendous learning process,” according to Cliff, “but the hospitals are looking for the value savings. 

As an example he cites recent work done at the Methodist Innovation Lab, where 68 light fixtures were replaced. The initial goal had been to overhaul just the patient room, but the positive results led to them also doing the conference room, nursing station, hallways, and more—half the floor in only about two days. 

“We were running the entire 68 light fixtures off of one 20-amp breaker,” he says—compared to the previous electrical panel with 10 to 12 circuit breakers. “So it's a major difference.” 

Just as importantly, the work could be done safely and easily, without the need for an electrician. 

“I know the story is circadian,” Cliff says, “but the power savings and the value is really where a lot of people pay attention.” 

Understanding what Installers Want and Need

“Being in the control and automation industry afforded us the ability to understand what installers are looking for and make our product easy to install,” Jenn says. “Being in the field gives you a unique sense of what's necessary.”

Among those necessary features is built-in auto-detection, which allows nearly anyone to install Mate’s hardware regardless of any prior knowledge of the fixture or what the floor may look like.

Another interesting feature is reverse polarity protection. 

“You could have somebody in the field hook this up completely backwards,” Jenn explains, “and you're not going to short anything or mess anything up.” 

One of Mate’s other unexpected benefits is the ability it gives hospitals to monitor its lighting and display how much energy an individual fixture uses—something, according to Cliff, that’s “currently unheard of in our industry.” 

This unique monitoring system allows hospitals to see even further than just how much energy a light is using. 

“It's not only the energy,” says Jenn. “We can offer a 30, 60, or 90-day exposure view of when a fixture's going to go out. And that gives everybody a chance to prep for that, so that you don't have to walk through the floors and the hallways to know when a light fixture is out, you can be ready for it.” 

Low maintenance, simple to maintain, and virtually foolproof, the system puts Mate in the best possible position to support companies like Lone Star.  

“We understand what installers need when it comes to a piece of hardware.” 

Hospitals are just the Beginning

Mate’s platform isn’t limited only to acute care. There are other places within the healthcare system where the benefits of Mate’s circadian rhythm lighting can be leveraged.  

“I think about senior living centers and memory care centers and folks who are inside all day but still need to have some way to tune themselves,” Jenn says. “And I think it goes back to thinking about my grandmother who suffered from dementia.” 

Equally important are the places outside of healthcare. 

“Everybody can benefit from circadian rhythm lighting,” affirms Jenn. For instance, education facilities: “You’re inside all day while you're in class—what better use of lighting could that be to make sure you feel energetic and awake throughout the day? I think that could be hugely helpful.” 

Other good fits include large-scale warehouses, factories, and commercial buildings—anyplace with shift work. 

“There's really no facility that I think wouldn't be a great subject for circadian rhythm lighting,” Jenn says. “I think we just started focusing on healthcare because of the high percentage of wellness benefits. That's where we started, but that's not where we'll end.” 

Continued Growth and Innovation in 2024

As for Mate’s plans in 2024, Jenn believes the company’s partnership with Lone Star will only grow stronger as they continue to bring wellness and energy savings to new facilities. 

“It's going to be an exciting year,” she says. “We're excited about the floor plans we're receiving as we start looking at new projects. Working with Lone Star to this point has been such a delight, because everybody seems well educated in how to install in these facilities. And when you start at a high level like that, it only gives you room to grow and innovate together.” 

Part of that innovation includes improving the company’s ability to manage inventory by 3D-printing the outside of its hardware. Making this all the more satisfying for Jenn is that the process will be done at Mate’s Oklahoma headquarters. 

“I'm proud of it being kept in the United States,” she says. 

The company will also continue its focus on sustainability and prioritizing recycled materials. 

“I think that just adds to the technology, as well as the overall thought and mindset, of our company. I'm fortunate to work with a team of innovators, and I know we're going to have so much more to add in the new year.” 

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Jenn Upton co-founded Mate in 2016, where she has used her background in control and automation to bring a low-voltage, circadian rhythm lighting solution to hospitals and medical centers to promote wellness and restful sleep for patients. 

Cliff Switzer is a healthcare innovation specialist for Lone Star Communications with over 27 years in the industry. His main focus is on building relationships with individuals by understanding their needs and connecting them to the right products or solutions.