Remote Patient Monitoring Brings mHealth Care Management Into the Home
Remote patient monitoring programs have the potential to reduce chronic care costs and hospital readmissions and improve clinical outcomes by moving care out of the hospital or doctor’s office and into the home.
Most of these programs focus on the collection of patient-generated health data from the home, through devices and mobile health platforms that connect to the primary care provider or care team. That data can either be collected and sent by the patient or gathered by connected devices and sent to the provider without the patient’s participation.
In this manner a provider can keep track of a patient around the clock, gathering data on health, activity, diet and exercise, the environment, even social determinants, thus filling out a health record that would otherwise focus on the patient’s visits to the doctor or hospital. By creating a more complete record, the provider can gain a better understanding of a patient’s overall health and develop a care plan that more closely adheres to a patient’s life.
A provider can also use the platform to push health and wellness advice, care management tips and other resources to the patient, based on trends spotted in RPM data. A diabetic patient consistently showing high blood sugar levels, for instance, might be urged to exercise more or alter his or her diet – or change his or her daily insulin intake to bring those readings down.