Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is an essential tool for proper patient post-care and has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since patients had concerns about leaving their homes or sitting in waiting rooms, appointments were missed and sometimes, necessary treatments were postponed. For doctors, that often meant no-shows or holes in their schedules.
Telehealth has helped bridge the gap for many patients. As a way to do video visits with healthcare providers, it has removed many of the barriers to keeping appointments or reaching out for care.
RPM provides healthcare providers with the information and data that they need to better assess patients remotely. It also enables more engagement to help patients actively monitor and improve their health.
One of the most difficult challenges for healthcare providers dealing with remote care of chronic diseases is getting patients to comply with treatment plans when at home. Research shows that patients who are actively involved in their health care are more likely to stick to treatment regimens. This reduces exacerbations and decreases hospitalizations.
Limitations That Make Remote Measurement Complicated during COVID-19
Unfortunately, many healthcare providers have had to rely on multi-device kits to handle RPM. The use of multiple devices creates different analytic sources, and patient compliance is significantly reduced. Often, clinicians are left relying on spot checks and fragmented usage, which makes it challenging to easily recognize anomalies and patterns.
Patients juggling multiple devices often get frustrated or forget to use all of them, which leads to inconsistent monitoring. Physicians don’t get the data that they need, and patients are less likely to maintain their treatment routine. This is especially concerning for chronic patients, who may already struggle to stay on plan.
Enter Single Device Multiparameter Contactless Portable Respiratory Rate Monitoring
The alternative to the multi-device kit is a single device that measures multiple parameters. Rather than having several devices measure different parameters, one device can provide the real-time monitoring of various parameters, or continuous remote patient monitoring (CRPM).
For example, portable respiratory rate monitoring provides one-click, real-time continuous respiratory data access for clinicians and helps with monitoring and patient health screening. It can also provide other data points, including:
- Hypoxia index
- Sleep data
- Physiological stress
- Behavioral data
- Clinical reports
CRPM can provide accurate condition-specific reports and dynamic health status baseline reports for the recognition of trends and patterns that fall outside parameters. Smart notifications can be generated when preset targets are hit to keep patients and physicians informed to support healthcare decisions.
This real-time data can be used to trigger home treatment of mild complications and provide an earlier warning to more severe concerns.
CRPM Benefits for Patients during COVID-19
For patients, CRPM provides earlier detection and in some cases, predictions about pending exacerbations or life-threatening events. This helps avoid ER visits or hospitalizations and can be used to optimize home treatments.
It also gives patients peace of mind. Rather than being in a constant state of worry, patients know that monitoring is taking place and that they will be alerted when their conditions change. This helps reduce anxiety, which can be a contributing factor to poor health, especially for chronic illnesses.
When patients are empowered to self-manage and are provided with the knowledge and data to make better decisions, digital health technology, such as CRPM, helps keep patients on track with treatments and recognize when intervention is needed.
One key to CRPM is ensuring that devices are comfortable for continuous monitoring, especially for high-risk chronic patients.
CRPM Benefits for Physicians
CRPM also has significant benefits for physicians. When patients remain engaged with self-care, it tends to lead to better overall outcomes.
Monitoring provides early indicators of stress, which can reduce emergency treatments and overall patient care costs for physicians. If clinicians can get accurate data from patients, it can make telehealth visits more productive and maximize clinical time.
The Oxitone 1000M Remote Patient Monitoring
The Oxitone 1000M is the world’s first FDA-cleared wrist sensor pulse oximetry monitor. Comfortable and easy to wear as a watch, it requires no fingertip probe and has a long-lasting rechargeable battery.
It eliminates the use of multi-device kits by providing continuous measurement of multiple parameters, including:
- SpO2
- Pulse rate
- Heart rate variability (physiological stress)
- Activity/Sep count
- Skin temperature
- Respiratory rate
Other tools are in development, such as blood pressure and cardiac output.
The Oxitone 1000M CRPM generates medical-grade physiological data that physicians can use as part of their clinical decisions about patient care. The CRPM of those with severe chronic conditions has a significant and positive impact on patient health, clinical management and outcomes, and patient quality of life, while providing passive monitoring with high patient compliance.
Here at Oxitone, we boost value-based healthcare by delivering extraordinary patient, clinical, and economical outcomes at reduced medical utilization and cost. Patients need a prompt response to emergencies. Physicians need an easy and timely follow-up with patients. Our mission is to transform chronic disease management and help save lives worldwide.
Let’s save lives together! To see how we help remote patient monitoring companies and physicians improve the management and care of high-risk patients, contact us today!
