Remote Patient Monitoring is changing the lives of both patients and their practitioners. Here’s why: traditionally, when a person feels unwell, the obvious thing to do is to go to the doctor. In the doctor’s office, the doctor will ask the patient about their complaint, examine them, and measure their vital signs. These checks will of course be accurate, but only for the exact time they are taken inside the doctor’s office.
The doctor may then prescribe a medication and send the patient home, telling them to come back in a few weeks if symptoms persist. If the doctor feels the patient needs further assistance, they may send the patient to the hospital, where once there, their vital signs may be monitored, and more tests and treatments may be required. In order for the patient to be discharged from the hospital, the staff will need to safely conclude that the patient’s vital signs no longer require consistent monitoring.
Essentially, the moment the patient steps out of the hospital, they are immediately out of the direct sphere of medical observation, or ‘off the doctor’s grid’. No one will be tracking daily vitals – temperature, oxygen saturation levels, blood pressure, pulse rate, etc., leaving the patient wide open to undetected (and preventable) future adverse health changes while in recovery, and subsequent return visits to the hospital.
RPM has been described by many different organizations. Among them: The US Government Accountability office, The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), The Institute for Health Policy and Leadership, to name but a few.
We believe that the best and most accurate way to describe it is:
“The real time digital capture and electronic transmission of vital health data from patient to healthcare provider, enabling continuous remote assessment, accurate data-based medical advice and instruction.”
Why is this revolutionary? Because RPM provides doctors with ‘eyes and ears’ once the patient leaves the healthcare facility, widening the continuum of care, mitigating risk, reducing adverse events and empowering the patient to take more control of their health. This way, patients have peace of mind that they are still within the range of care of their doctors, and healthcare facilities can reduce repeat costly visits. Everybody wins.
Remote patient monitoring has often been confused with telehealth monitoring though, but this is not entirely correct…
It’s important to understand the difference between these two terms in order to fully understand RPM. Here’s a quick look at the differences between them:
So, remote patient monitoring is a derivative of telehealth, but an individual component of it. This NEJM article can give you more in-depth insight into this matter.
There are several RPM devices available today on the market. Here’s a quick overview of the most common reasons RPM is used:
Now that we have understood what RPM is, let’s take a look into how it actually works.
Implementing RPM is relatively simple and the practices and process for using it can be viewed in the following six steps:
It’s important to note that in order to deliver such services, health care providers will need to choose a device for their practice, setup a patient intake program and internal process and receive training.
A good RPM provider will assist the healthcare facility with all of these processes, making them seamless and as easy to follow as possible. Good devices should be intuitive for patients to use and hassle free for maximum patient compliance.
Now that you see how simple RPM is to implement, you can only just imagine how helpful it was and still is, when applied to the current Covid 19 pandemic.
Under the dark cloud of the Covid 19 pandemic, Remote Patient Monitoring has proved to be literally a life saver, preventing hospital admissions and improving recovery from the virus, according to a Kaiser Permanente study.
In the event of such a mass global event, RPM enables providers to reduce stress on hospitals, minimize mass infection of other patients and health care providers, and keep a close eye on patients able to stay at home
A great use case of RPM is the Southern California Permanente Medical Group who studied 13,055 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and participated in an RPM program between April 13, 2020, and February 12, 2021.
The program required patients to enter daily symptoms through an mHealth app, which care providers could monitor at the hospital. The home monitoring kit included a pulse oximeter and thermometer and access to the RPM app. You can read more about this fascinating case here.
So, now that you know all about Remote Patient Monitoring, you may have some questions, such as – is it expensive and how should you go about choosing a vendor?
With regards to cost, the answer… depends.
Firstly, it’s important to note that RPM is considered to be extremely cost effective due its ability to increase savings and revenues for healthcare providers. With regards to capital and operational costs, it really depends on the system, and there really is no single straightforward answer to that, unless the practitioner knows exactly what their need are. In short, it’s advisable to take the time to research needs and solutions thoroughly.
With regards to choosing a vendor, practitioners and healthcare providers will want to make sure that they choose a vendor that can offer them all the services they need – not just the device. A good vendor will provide a fully comprehensive solution which will include a device, an application or software that’s intuitive and easy to work with and of course, support.
Biobeat is a leading Remote Patient Monitoring provider. Our remote patient monitoring platform is the next generation of Health AI, measuring vital signs in real-time and using wireless, non-invasive medical-grade technology and Machine Learning in order to provide actionable insights on patient care.
Our platform includes everything healthcare providers and practitioners need to effectively and efficiently monitor their patients:
| Provides an Early Warning Score with customized thresholds per patient and scenario. Identifies changes in vitals and alert on high-risk patients | Enables access to real-time patient data paired with AI capabilities to provide insights on trends and bring efficiency into the process of healthcare delivery | Optimizes all data collection, providing medical staff the required clinical data instantly | Empowers healthcare practitioners to adopt a data-driven approach to personalized medicine |
With the Biobeat Remote Patient Monitoring platform, its simple to:
And, we offer both short-term and long-term remote patient monitoring solutions:
In addition to a fully comprehensive web management solution and ambulatory services for complete peace of mind:
With Biobeat, healthcare practitioners can measure a diverse range of health parameters with just one device. That’s because we are able to collect millions of data-points per patient per day. This is enabled through our proprietary data collection tools, via either our wrist-monitor or chest-monitor. Both devices are based on our PPG sensor, which is developed in-house and patented globally.
Each of these devices is able to measure 13 vital signs, continuously, wirelessly and in real time:
Biobeat benefits are clear and far-reaching, benefiting patients, practictioners and healthcare facilities, saving time, improving health and wellbeing and significantly lowering costs.
For more information on Biobeat RPM technology, devices, applications, and systems and a live demo, contact: [email protected]
