Telehealth Monitor

“The economy has hit bottom,” Scripps Health’s Dr. Eric Topol declared during his keynote at the CTIA Wireless event in Las Vegas this week. “But at the same time there has never been more wireless innovation in the medical community.”

Topol spent much of his twenty five minutes onstage describing and demonstrating examples of that innovation. 

“As a cardiologist I never thought I would be seeing from a smart bandaid on my phone a continually streaming electrocardiagram,” Topol said. “I never thought this would be possible, but, of course, it is ready now.”

Topol then showed a real-time wireless bandaid for monitoring electrocardiograms that he said the FDA approved last month. The product was developed by Corventis.

“Let me do a demo of this, [the smart bandaid] is right on me now. Let’s take a look: Here’s my electrocardiogram. I noticed my heart rate went up a bit since this morning… That’s interesting.”  

Topol said that the ability to remotely monitor someone who has had heart failure with a solution like this has extraordinary potential. He also said that remote monitoring for heart failure patients alone is projected to create savings of $10 billion per year. If you add diabetes and chronic congestive pulmonary disease wireless remote monitoring to that figure, we could save another $10 billion a year by virtue of remote wireless monitoring, Topol said.

via Topol: Remote monitoring will save $20+ billion | mobihealthnews.

Remote Monitoring

Remote monitoring technologies convey real-time physiological information on a patient’s condition over the Internet or via phone lines. “We look at remote monitoring—incorporated into devices like a pacemaker, for instance—as a means to generate information that a physician can use to evaluate and care for the patient without having the patient come in for a physical face-to-face meeting,” says Madeleine Smith, senior vice president of payment and policy at AdvaMed, the Advanced Medical Technology Association. A recent AdvaMed report chronicled how these technologies can play a vital role in managing costly and debilitating chronic diseases. The findings were based on a review of various published studies.

“Remote monitoring is increasingly recognized as a valuable tool for enhancing care quality in chronic disease management,” says Max E. Stachura, MD, director of the Center for Telehealth at the Medical College of Georgia and the report’s lead researcher. “For patients, these technologies mean fewer office and emergency room visits, fewer and reduced duration of hospitalizations, less travel time and expense, and increased access—especially for the elderly, the physically challenged, the homebound, and rural patients. For clinicians, they mean more informed decision making, enhanced patient compliance, and more efficient case management.”

The report involves patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart and lung problems. One finding showed that when patients with severe respiratory illness requiring long-term oxygen therapy were remotely monitored, hospital admissions decreased by 50%, acute clinical problems decreased 55%, and hospitalization costs fell 17%. Also, a study of 400 diabetes patients found that those monitored by in-home glucose meters and video conferencing showed significantly greater improvement in reducing average blood sugar levels than those who did not receive such monitoring.

The Center for Connected Health is implementing several connected health programs for chronic disease patients at Partners HealthCare-affiliated hospitals in Boston, according to Kvedar. For example, one of the center’s initiatives is the Connected Cardiac Care program, which is being offered to heart failure patients at risk for frequent hospitalizations. Data from a pilot study found that Connected Cardiac Care can reduce rehospitalizations by improving patients’ understanding of their condition and providing ongoing nursing support and a review of vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure, while the patient is at home.

“This program allows patients to self-monitor and transmit their vital signs and symptoms to a telemonitoring nurse who helps patients understand the link between lifestyle choices and their disease, and, importantly, coordinates care with their physician,” says Kvedar.

via Telemedicine: Miles Don’t Matter.