Remote patient monitoring software products are becoming increasingly widely used by medical professionals to allow doctors and clinicians to monitor patients with long-term and chronic conditions away from a traditional clinical environment and offer patients the chance to self-triage from the comfort of their own home.
A study from Spyglass suggests that more than 88 percent of healthcare providers are investing in remote patient monitoring software to help them provide care for patients remotely, thus reducing the amount of time required for patients to be on-site.
Many hospitals and clinics were already investing in these products before the COVID-19 outbreak; however, the pandemic has accelerated their use. The systems include devices that patients wear to provide 24/7 data analysed for monitoring and treatment purposes. Patients are no longer relied upon to travel into clinics and hospitals for routine checks, meaning physicians can re-direct their time more efficiently.
Here is a guide to some of the top remote patient monitoring software products currently available.
Medopad
Medopad is a remote patient monitoring smartphone app and clinical portal created by Huma through which patients can access a care plan individually configured for their specific needs. As well as providing real-time data for clinical assessment and monitoring, patients can also be given goals to achieve to live a healthier lifestyle.
The Medopad software can be linked up with a range of medical devices to collect medical data. There are over 100 different modules that have been developed in partnership with many leading hospitals, which allows the software to be configured and solutions deployed to cover a range of other conditions with the utmost ease.
Dexcom
One of the leading specialist blood glucose monitoring systems is Dexcom which is used to treat diabetes. The patient wears a sensor that monitors their blood glucose levels and transmits the data to a smartphone or tablet app. One of the main benefits of Dexcom is that patients can share the data with up to 10 other people, meaning that friends and family can be informed of the patient’s state in real-time.
As well as providing the patient with an up-to-date visual analysis of their readings, the software also shares the data gleaned from the sensor with their physician or clinician. This allows healthcare professionals to adjust the patient’s treatment plan with a minimum of fuss and without the patient needing to be on-site.
Gyant
The Gyant virtual assistant is a chat-based remote patient monitoring system that analyses a patients’ medical history and offers treatment options quickly and without a visit to a clinic. Patients can tap into a range of services, from symptom checks to help them find their nearest health centre.
The app can triage patients quickly based on their symptoms and provide them with a swift treatment plan. Once this course of treatment has begun, Gyant reaches out to the patient to ensure that the recommended method is behind adhered to and suggests changes where improvements could result in improved outcomes. In addition, patients awaiting operative surgery can use the app to ensure they are best prepared for their procedure through the app’s perioperative settings.
Patient satisfaction is very high, with 85% of users prepared to use the service more than once while re-engagement rates exceed 70%. 94% of users that begin interacting with the app follow it through to a conclusion taking advantage of a waiting time of less than 1 minute to make contact.
Medtronic
Medtronic is a product that offers a full range of remote patient monitoring software neatly packaged in a single online suite. Available on both Apple and Android devices, the app easily connects to devices that can monitor a host of different health indicators, including weighing scales, blood pressure monitors, oxygen indicators, heart monitors, and glucometers.
Clinicians can then analyze the data with the Medtronic Care Management Services platform to check their patient’s signs are as expected. With their patient’s cooperation, they can set up alerts should the data show that certain levels have been reached or exceeded and quickly adapt to modify treatment plans remotely as required.
100Plus
The fastest-growing remote patient monitoring system is 100Plus. This product owes its success to the fact that as well as charting a patient’s vital signs, it can also provide them with a bespoke monitoring program and see it through the implementation stage right through to ensuring the patient is adhering to the program.
This system is ideal for clinicians who need to manage the condition of patients with chronic illnesses and once set up, allows the medical professional to remain largely hands-off. The specialized Population Health Management Alerting system flags will provide alerts for vulnerable patients and provide reminders to patients to ensure that patients are testing or recording data as required.
Vitls
Vitls is an innovative remote patient monitoring system that has been proven to provide early detection of any deterioration in a patient’s vital signs. Early intervention can be crucial to reducing the length of hospital stages, the cost of treatment and dramatically reducing the number of re-admissions. Crucially, it can significantly reduce the number of preventable deaths both inside and outside of hospitals in non-ICU beds.
Healthcare professionals can monitor the patient’s body temperature, heart rate, respiration rate, pulse O2 levels, movement (including the ability to check if they have fallen), and sleep cycles through a comfortable, thin waterproof monitoring device with 6-day battery life before being disposed of.
Cardiomo
As the name would suggest, Cardiomo is a remote patient monitoring system focusing on keeping track of the patient’s heart rate. With biosensors, the Cardiomo monitor takes readings of the patient’s ECG outputs, breathing, and skin temperature and can predict heart issues up to 2-hours before they occur.
This system is handy for monitoring out-patients and older adults. It can detect inactivity and if a person has fallen alongside the potentially life-saving early alerts that can be sent to the patient, their families, or clinician allowing for speedy intervention when required.
Helpfully, the consumer interface is highly user-friendly, requiring minimal medical or technical support to set up, implement and operate.
CoachCare
CoachCare is a remote patient monitoring system that, like many of its competitors, provides clinicians with a consistent flow of data across a range of different platforms on a patient’s vital signs. It comes with a customized portal for each patient and add-ons that can be quickly integrated into a health practice and work with the patient’s observations.
A further incentive for health practices is the Remote Patient Monitoring insurance feature which can provide significant additional revenue of up to 11x their initial investment through reimbursements. In addition to this income, CoachCare can significantly reduce the overall cost of care and provide clinics with yet more savings.
There is a vast range of remote patient monitoring systems on the market. Some provide a good level of overall data collection across more than one vital sign, and others are more focused on one aspect of a patient’s health. It’s essential to understand the requirements of both patient and healthcare provider when choosing the right system; however, both parties will quickly recognize the benefits with a reduced number of face-to-face appointments and lower medical costs.
