What Are The Pros And Cons of Remote Patient Monitoring?

Crux: Most of the time, patients visit doctors only in the case of extreme necessity. If you possess mobile gadgets – smartphones and wearables, in particular, you might end up saving your time and a visit in person. It sounds convenient to both parties – patients and the doctors. Doctors can counsel the patients immediately without making patients wait for an appointment to roll around.

What is remote patient monitoring?

Remote patient monitoring refers to using digital technologies to collect patient’s data and use it ahead to monitor their health. The medical practitioners collect the individual information in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to a healthcare provider across localities for assessment and recommendation.

What can remote patient monitoring do?

• Reduce in bed days of care
• Reduce hospital admissions
• Increase patient satisfaction scores
• Reduce mortality in chronic heart failure patients
• Reduces organizational costs
• Provides healthcare providers with ROI

How is remote patient monitoring (RPM) helpful?

RPM is suitable for chronic conditions like heart failure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation etc.  The ability to monitor the patient’s condition remotely enhances the quality of care, improves clinical efficiency, and reduces healthcare costs subsequently.

How are Telemedicine and Telehealth different from remote patient monitoring?

• Telehealth refers to a broader scope of remote health care services and remote non-clinical services.
• Telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services.
• Three main types of telemedicine are store-and-forward, remote monitoring and real-time interactive services. Each one comes with its features and benefits.
• Remote patient monitoring is a subset of telehealth, which uses technology tools to track patient data out of the standard healthcare settings.

What is a Remote Patient Monitoring System (RPMS)?

• RPMs require digital connection and patient monitoring systems to capture and transmit the data through the internet.
• Medical practitioners and clinicians even use Apple Watch, Fitbit, heart monitors, Bluetooth-enabled scales, skin patches, glucose monitors, maternity care trackers, belts, shoes, or invasive devices to capture heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, sleep pattern, weight, age, step counts and other relevant details.
• Types of Patient monitoring software include wireless, portable, real-time, and continuous. They are classifiable into two broad categories – bedside patient monitoring systems and remote patient monitoring systems.
• An example of a patient monitoring device can be cardiac device implanted inside. It syncs to a transmitter in a hospital or can be sleek, consumer-friendly wearable devices.

Why is Remote Patient monitoring popular?

Every technology is about reducing human effort, cost and time. RPM devices provide proactive care to patients and tracking their healthcare outcomes. It enables monitoring of patients outside of conventional clinical settings – home, school, office, which increases access to care and reduces delivery costs.

It monitors patients regularly while they are in hospital and takes appropriate action if they show signs of becoming worse can help avoid serious problems.

It comes with lower costs and higher efficiency for healthcare providers. The benefits that it brings to patients include improved quality of care and better access to healthcare. It brings assured and timely monitoring, timely checkups and instant feedback.

What are the potential challenges with RPMS?

While the benefits of remote monitoring systems are well-known, one needs to catch out on the remuneration of doctors for their medical advice/ treatment generated from somewhere other than a clinical setting.

• Once the healthcare professionals collect the data from patients, they require redirecting it from RPM devices to electronic medical record systems (EMR’s) by multiple third-party applications;
• Even if popular wearables track fitness, they have a certain percentage of error margins;
• Locations and remote access possibilities can be a hurdle;
• Doctors have to make enormous efforts to engage patients and motivate them to use RPM;
• Unproved accuracy of devices;
• The possibility of imprecision still affects RPM;

Conclusive: How do we benefit from remote patient monitoring?

Remote patient monitoring devices enable medical practitioners to access patient’s data easily. This technology brings the potential to deliver higher quality care to more patients with a lower risk of burnout. From expensive healthcare innovation to enhanced productivity solutions, reduced cost and improved outcomes – remote patient monitoring is an efficient way for patients and doctors to connect and share information without the travel and costs associated with an in-person visit.

At Konstant, we replete with gratitude for every health professional, scientist and volunteer behind the incredible global health effort that made these technologies possible and is committed to ensuring that everyone gets access to required medical help on time. Remote patient monitoring applications are our best chance to protect each other, end the pandemic, and return to sharing our lives with the people we love. Do you require creating an RPM application? Reach out to us!