On February 6th, we hosted an AI Deep Dive Session in collaboration with the Vanderbilt School of Nursing with Dr. Deonni Stolldorf (PhD, RN, FAAN), Associate Professor of Nursing in the Health Promotion, Populations, and Health Systems Community. The Vanderbilt School of Nursing is one of the nation’s premier graduate nursing schools, recognized for excellence in education, practice, and research with a strong commitment to serving underserved populations. Dr. Stolldorf, a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, specializes in implementation science and the sustainability of health care innovations, with a focus on improving patient safety and quality of care. She led a discussion on leveraging AI technologies to expand the GUIDED-HF telehealth self-care intervention to rural heart failure patients who face significant barriers to traditional telehealth.
Highlights:
- Purpose: The GUIDED-HF intervention has demonstrated effectiveness in supporting heart failure self-care through telehealth, but rural patients face unique barriers—limited internet connectivity, unfamiliarity with video conferencing, and lack of technical support at home. The session explored AI-powered alternatives to rethink how the intervention is delivered to these underserved populations.
- Focus Areas: The discussion centered on whether Audio OpenAI (voice AI) could enable patients to engage with the intervention through natural phone conversation, and how smartphone apps and chatbot solutions compare in terms of accessibility, patient engagement, and intervention fidelity for users with phone-only internet access.
- AI Applications: The session examined voice AI for conversational intervention delivery, chatbot-based patient interaction, and mobile app solutions for daily symptom tracking—all designed to work within the constraints identified through rural patient interviews and surveys.
Session Insights:
- Insights from rural patient interviews shaped the technical requirements: patients primarily rely on phones for internet access, struggle with telehealth setup without in-person assistance, and want simple tools for daily health monitoring. Any AI-powered solution must balance accessibility with intervention fidelity.
- The collaboration between DSI and the School of Nursing enabled a multidisciplinary brainstorming session on technical architecture, user experience design, and practical implementation considerations—combining nursing expertise with data science and AI capabilities.
- The session identified key considerations for future grant submissions, including infrastructure requirements and which delivery modality best serves low-tech literacy users while maintaining the structured nature of the heart failure self-care intervention.
Conclusion:
The AI Deep Dive with Dr. Stolldorf and the Vanderbilt School of Nursing showcased how AI-powered voice, chatbot, and mobile technologies can help bridge the digital divide in rural healthcare delivery. This session provided a unique opportunity for those interested in voice AI, mobile health applications, and rural healthcare to engage in meaningful discussion and collaboration.
Are you interested in hosting a future AI Deep Dive? Contact us at datascience@vanderbilt.edu.