Remote patient monitoring or health consultation started long back. Many of you might not be aware of this, It is first started when two physicians consulted over a telephone, probably in 18’s.
1924: A speculative cover of Radio News magazine showed the use of the radio for medical consultation.
1948: Technology advanced and one doctor sent X-ray images over telephone wires to another doctor in Pennsylvania.
1960: Psychiatric consultations are now being transmitted by closed-circuit television.
1967: Physicians started transmitting EKGs over telephone wires.
1980: X-ray images transmitting over the telephone wires became routine.
Now remote monitoring means more than just remote examinations and consultations, more than sending X-rays and CT and MRI scans and lab data. Now patients in their own home can receive quality healthcare over the internet, talk with doctors, get face to face consultation with video camera.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) falls under the umbrella of telehealth. Remote patient monitoring is “continuous monitoring or periodic, asynchronous monitoring of patient’s vials which includes blood pressure, weight oxygen saturation, glucose levels, heart rate etc.”. Basically, medical data and health information is collected from an individual in one location and transmitted to a provider in an another location. It allows patient care to move out of the 4 walls of the hospitals, into the home setting. RPM is mostly asynchronous, meaning patient information is sent and stored on the server, then once provider have opportunity to review they can consult.
As a patient when i am able to track my health information from home, i get better satisfaction, positive health outcome. When RPM tools are used it reduces overall healthcare operating cost by minimizing emergency room visits, lengthy hospitals stays and preventing readmission.
here are some of the top benefits of patient monitoring
RPM works in 5 steps
Personal medical devices can identify COVID-19 symptoms remotely before people suffer from complications. That’s especially important for seniors because the risk of death and severe illness from the virus increases with age. As shown by the CDC, over 80% of deaths from COVID-19 in the US were among people over age 65.
RPM devices can analyze real-time and historic SpO2 data to detect high-risk patients or those who are already sick. This can help direct people to clinics earlier, potentially preventing drastic therapy measures (such as being put on a mechanical ventilator).
The rise in chronic illnesses and related risk factors has fueled the number of deaths during the pandemic. However, medical organizations can prevent complications from ongoing diseases by continuously monitoring patient health data, which is possible with RPM technology.
Healthcare organizations are expected to adopt more RPM solutions that focus on patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
Big data and the Internet of Things (IoT) positively impact the healthcare industry, especially in cardiology, oncology, and neurology. IoT devices can gather information about the physical activities and psychological conditions of patients. Solutions that manage big data, on the other hand, allow processing this information to gain actionable insights.
Rapid advancements in these technologies offer new ways to use RPM to improve healthcare delivery. Medical facilities can develop a remote patient monitoring software that will integrate with wearable devices to accumulate large volumes of medical data about patients. Then, RPM systems will use AI and machine learning to improve the quality and effectiveness of healthcare for different categories of patients.
Data Exchange: RPM devices can collect data through sensors and send it back to servers for storage. healthcare providers can use this information via API’s design to sort or present information in required format. The device can transfer the data directly to the cloud server. However, the most cost-effective option is to transfer the information from the RPM device to the mobile app via a Bluetooth module that will then upload it to the database. That’s why the patient-side mobile application should support BLE (Bluetooth low energy) communications for faster data exchange and integrate with other medical software products via a secure API.
Analytics and decision support: Implementation of RPM solutions with other computing systems will enable advanced data management and analytics. After the patient data from a wearable tracker gets delivered to the database, the hospital-side software can automatically turn it into actionable insights.
On top of that, the development of remote patient monitoring software with machine learning and AI technology can help you forecast a patient’s future condition (predictive analytics) and suggest ways to improve their health (prescriptive analytics). Additionally, a system can include data visualization tools that help doctors define inclination, tendencies and pattern to identify high-risk
Data Tracking: Data tracking and monitoring vitals are regular medical practice. However RPM solutions can make this process ongoing and automated to give doctors a clearer picture of patients health condition.
Communication tools: Organizations can create remote patient monitoring software with audio and video conferencing features, enhancing communications between physicians and patients.
Data security: Data security is very important in healthcare industry. Protecting patients healthcare information like PHI, PII and PCI data is crucial for any software systems. The healthcare sector is a large target for hackers. According to the HIPAA 2019 Healthcare Data Breach Report, the industry suffered over 41,000 stolen medical records in 2019 alone. Fines for HIPAA violations range from $100 to $50,000 per incident.
That’s why both the patient-side and hospital-side of your remote health and telemedicine software must be HIPPA compliant. Moreover, System should align with other regulations and standards (IEC 62304, ICD-10, PDMS, MDDS, FDA, and others).
Notification and Alerts: RPM can helps patients and physicians with automated reminders and alerts. example, if certain vital from patients goes beyond the threshold limit will alert users as well as physicians to take required action.
Coming soon……
The team’s industry experience plays a important role in healthcare software development. At Arihant, we know how to deal with common technical challenges during the development process and iteratively address those issue based on the requirement and client’s needs.
Our approach is ti understand your existing monitoring system, understand upgrade requirement and design system which helps you to get patient satisfaction.
The market for remote patient monitoring systems will continue to grow even after the pandemic or in future.
RPM solutions can help healthcare providers to capture, monitor, and automate healthcare and physiological data analysis continuously. Some software allows doctors to examine and treat patients with telehealth without the need to visit physical locations. The advantages of this technology include faster response to drastic changes in a patient’s condition, improved customer satisfaction, and reduced readmissions and routine examinations.
Arihant brings experience to the table with a relevant tech stack, efficient development methodology, and a proven workflow. We know how to create a remote patient monitoring system that will help your business deliver more value and reduce operational costs.
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