Virtual nursing staff may help save cardiology departments from burnout
Numerous factors lead to cardiologist burnout and inefficiency, including the growing physician shortage, the rising the number of Medicare patients and a deceasing focus on clinical time with patients. This has led to a growing disconnect between patients and their doctors in some health systems, where cardiologists sometimes spend up to two hours of administrative time for every hour of time with patients.
Hiring additional full time employees (FTEs) is usually not an option to offload some of this administrative burden, and the large number of patient messages that come in via patient portals. But a new concept has emerged where remote virtual teams of advanced practice providers (APPs), medical assistant (MAs) and nurses can be contracted as an extension of in-person clinical staff.
MedStar Health co-developed this concept with Abundant Venture Partners, which raised $7.8 million this past December from numerous investors, including American Heart Association Ventures. They created a startup company, Auxira Health, to provide these augmentation services to cardiology departments.
The service started with MedStar and has now expanded with a partnership with St. Luke's University Health Network heart and vascular program in Pennsylvania.
Auxira said it creates clinical pods composed of APPs, NPs, PAs, MAs and registered nurses to work directly with cardiology practices to help handle various administrative or clinical tasks. They train onsite to understand the cardiology group's processes and patient protocols, then the team then works remotely.
“We understand that many patients, especially our older patients, value their time with a cardiologist above all else. At St. Luke’s, we are making sure that commitment remains at the heart of our care while also creating new ways to give patients easier access to timely appointments and more coordinated support when they need it most,” Ray Durkin, MD, cardiology chair at St. Luke’s, said in a statement.
He said the collaboration allows the cardiology department to spend more time with patients and maintain quality care standards. The virtual teams are helping with follow-ups, paperwork and care coordination online.
Health systems take new approach to commercializing startup spinoffs
Auxira is the first startup company created by Abundant, which itself was just formed in May 2025 through a partnership with 17 healthcare provider organizations. These include big names like ChristianaCare, Kettering Health, Medical University of South Carolina, Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, MedStar Health and Sharp HealthCare. These healthcare systems wanted to find a new way to accelerate the commercialization of various ideas to help solve problems in healthcare and Abundant's platform is helping flush out the business side of operations and drive scale with aligned, provider-backed seed and series A venture funds.
"Health systems have taken unnecessary risk and haven't been rewarded adequately for their work with early stage ventures," Harry Kirschner, CEO of Abundant Alliance, said in a statement when the company was formed. "After decades of reacting to the market and choosing what new innovations to 'bet on,' healthcare providers can now be in the driver seat and work closely with their peers to de-risk and accelerate the operational and equity impact from work with early stage ventures."
Abundant said it only backs companies that have been vetted with concepts that are designed to address critical challenges in healthcare and could generate equity earning opportunities for partner healthcare providers.
MedStar Health Chief Innovation Officer William Sheahan, PhD, MPA, said in a statement last May they went to Abundant with a concept and intellectual property that had demonstrated great outcomes at MedStar.
"We knew it had broader potential. Abundant uniquely positioned us to explore and launch a new company with other providers signed on as co-developers, investors, and customers," Sheahan explained.
Kettering Health CEO Michael Gentry said its partnership with the company helped his system accelerate efforts to get more involved with evaluating and adopting solutions with demonstrated outcomes, while also creating a platform for Kettering's internal teams to focus on innovations with broader appeal.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: [email protected]