New app allows Provo baby to live more normal life
Apr 6, 2018, 6:45 PM | Updated: Apr 7, 2018, 12:34 am
PROVO — A new trend in medicine is bridging the gap between doctors and high-risk patients.
For 5-month-old Chip Gilbert, a mobile app allowed his parents to take him home from the hospital.
Chip Gilbert was born with single ventricle heart disease.
Chip was born with single ventricle heart disease, and needed close monitoring in the critical stage between his first and second surgeries.
“He had his first open-heart surgery when he was 5 days old,” said mom Nicki Gilbert.
Chip received a second surgery last week.
The CHAMP app allowed his healthcare team to keep a close eye on him away from the hospital, letting Chip and his family lead a more normal life at home in Provo.
Nicki Gilbert at home with her children in Provo.
The app was developed at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City. It links patients like Chip to doctors at Primary Children’s Hospital.
When Nicki snaps photos and takes video of her baby, she looks like any other proud mother getting ready to post them on social media. But those videos could be life-saving.
While waiting for the second surgery, Nicki would upload a video of Chip each morning. She and his doctors looked for clues to make sure he was OK. They monitored his oxygen saturation and his heart rate.
“It does make us feel more confident in our ability to take care of him here at home,” Gilbert said.
Dr. Dongngan Truong, at Primary Children’s Hospital, is Chip’s cardiologist.
“Oftentimes parents will have concerns as well and when we look at the video we say, ‘He looks a little blue. Why don’t you bring him in?’”
Chip Gilbert
The health team could also see his health trends in graph form.
Gilbert said, “He had a weight loss kind of slump and they called us.”
“We look at his heart rate, and oxygen saturation, his weight, and how well he’s growing,” said Emilee Glenn, his nurse practitioner at Primary Children’s.
The app is also part of a study, so there was no cost to Chip’s parents.
The ultimate goal is that by enrolling hundreds of patients across the country with the same disease, doctors can improve treatment.
Dr. Truong said a computer algorithm could “predict in the future when patients are going to have a bad outcome and hopefully in the future, prevent that from happening.”
In an emergency, it’s an essential tool.
Nicki & Jordan Gilbert with their son, Chip.
Chip’s dad, Jordan Gilbert, said, “If anything is a red flag in there, we get a call almost immediately. There’s a high-risk nurse team that is on it within 30 minutes.”
For families using the app, a CHAMP provider is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help answer questions and concerns.
The app helped take the pressure off Chip’s parents, especially with a busy family to care for.
“We’ve got a community of nurses on the other side,” said Jordan. “We’ve got a whole team on the other side just waiting to hear how Chip’s doing.”
Their family motto is: “Gilberts got grit.” It’s easy to see that they do. And with the help of doctors, they can face those trials together.
