Atrium Health Foundation has received more than $4 million in grant funding from The Duke Endowment to expand its digital health and education initiatives, including a virtual nursing program, school-based telehealth, and clinical workforce development across rural North Carolina.
WHY IT MATTERS
The package of five grants marks the largest contribution Atrium Health has received from the Charlotte-based philanthropic organization to date.
The flagship initiative, a $1.45 million grant, will support the launch of a virtual nursing program at Atrium Health Stanly in rural North Carolina, making it the state's first fully virtual nursing facility.
The Stanly facility will build on Advocate Health's enterprise-wide tele-nursing capabilities by equipping every patient room with camera infrastructure to allow continuous virtual monitoring and intervention.
Atrium Health said it expects the program to improve clinical outcomes by reducing hospital readmissions.
"Having cameras in every room will enable our bedside nurses to focus on direct patient care while virtual nurses provide continuous monitoring and timely interventions," said Marietta Abernathy, facility executive for Atrium Health Stanly, in a statement.
Another grant, totaling $559,000, will fund a study on the impact of Nuance's AI transcription tool Dragon Ambient eXperience Copilot among clinicians using its Spanish-language translation features.
The initiative will assess whether AI-enabled documentation and multilingual support can ease clinician workloads and improve access for Spanish-speaking patients across the Atrium network.
To support digital infrastructure in its K-12 school-based telehealth program, Atrium received $775,000 to modernize scheduling and coordination for its virtual clinics, which are embedded in over 200 schools across 10 counties.
The funding will enable the development of a mobile-friendly scheduling platform to streamline communication between schools and care teams, expanding care access for students across both urban and rural communities.
A $755,000 grant will further support the Health Sciences Academy at Atrium Health Union, a collaboration with Union County Public Schools that provides career pathway opportunities in healthcare.
The funds will be used to establish a dedicated headquarters, equipped with a simulation lab, for students from four participating high schools.
The grant will also support the creation of healthcare apprenticeships to better prepare students for clinical roles.
Atrium Health Cabarrus will also use grant support to expand its Family Medicine Residency Program, which places residents in outpatient clinics to improve access to primary and maternity care in underserved rural areas.
"We aim to refine this model and replicate it for recruiting, training and retaining physicians in other rural communities we serve," said Dr. Erika Steinbacher, vice-chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine, in a statement.
THE LARGER TREND
To date, The Duke Endowment has contributed more than $50 million to Atrium Health Foundation over a 30-year relationship, supporting a wide range of health equity, clinical innovation, and access to care initiatives.
The most recent set of grants, according to Hollowell, reflects the foundation's commitment to "supporting emerging technologies or enhancing existing programs."
Atrium has been a pioneer in the study and use of ambient artificial intelligence for clinical documentation; it has also been an early innovator in deploying advanced analytics for patient safety challenges such as fall prevention – to name just two recent IT initiatives reported by Healthcare IT News.
ON THE RECORD
"We share Atrium Health's commitment to ensuring access to care in communities where people live and work," said Lin Hollowell, director of health care at The Duke Endowment. "Whether through supporting emerging technologies or enhancing existing programs, together we can make a profound impact on our communities for generations to come."
Nathan Eddy is a healthcare and technology freelancer based in Berlin.
Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com
