Remote Patient Monitoring – The Future of Healthcare
How do healthcare professionals ensure that they can provide constant and quality care to remote patients? How do patients ensure that they have professional support without having to spend time and effort at hospital visits? Well, the answer lies in remote patient monitoring, which is an act of monitoring the health of a patient without being physically present. The integration of communication technologies in patient care has provided professionals with a revolutionary solution to deliver superior medical care remotely.
Consumer health devices such as portable blood pressure trackers, blood sugar tester, and ECG monitors have facilitated remote sharing of patient information. Doctors today can monitor patient health by using a secure web page where information is shared by a mobile transmitter that acts as a support between the device and the physician. More recently, manufacturers of implantable medical devices such as pacemakers have integrated connectivity into their products. These can be questioned manually by a third party to perform tests that would otherwise require a doctor to administer.
These tests are doing remote device maintenance checks, effective and convenient. In addition, these devices have been enabled to transmit statistics such as arrhythmias, which could help prevent emergency situations. Technology like this provides valuable support to healthcare providers, particularly in providing assistance to patients who need regular monitoring. An entire segment of patients suffering from long-term conditions such as congestive heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes will benefit from Remote Patient Monitoring with the convenience of care without spending time in clinics.
Another trend that is getting more and more adoption in the healthcare sector is the use of e-ICU models. These models allow physicians specializing in remote locations to monitor patients using two-way cameras, high-speed internet, and related devices. REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING helps move healthcare to an ever-changing environment where personal data is facilitated by data from connected devices.
The proliferation of devices enabled for Remote Patient Monitoring is further accelerated by the integration capabilities of the database. Remote Patient Monitoring Emerging Devices such as bands and bracelets that transmit patient position along with health readers transfer this information to a central database. Database-enabled tools can then alert doctors and their patients to improve disease treatment. Soon patients may have USB sticks connecting to a history database that can be instantly shared with institutions. REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING-based solutions are also entering the workforce with modules that provide monitoring solutions to employees with chronic conditions. Workplace productivity may increase timely alerts on devices and custom Web pages that monitor employee’s welfare levels.
Remote patient monitoring systems, therefore, can change how patient care is done by greatly reducing efforts and errors. Consequently, frequent visits to the hospital are reducing costs and encouraging adoption. The IHS research firm suggests that wireless remote monitoring devices will be used by more than 1.8 million people around the world in four years. Soon these systems could become a standard across the industry, driven by the high reception capacity and advances in database maintenance.