The network-based digital medical treatment has become an important means of modern medical management. People expect that the traditional medical model can break through the limitation of distance and provide better support for disease monitoring, early diagnosis, and rapid response to acute and serious illness. Telemedicine is an important product of this demand. Currently, telemedicine technology is being updated and iterated in an effort to be permanently integrated into the continuum of care. Next, let’s explore the latest breakthroughs in telemedicine and how it’s integrated with wearable medical devices.
Definition and advantages of telemedicine
Telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, health administration, and public health.[1]
Telemedicine enables healthcare providers to provide medical diagnosis and care to patients outside of regular doctor visits, reducing the burden on hospitals and clinics. Not only can the burden of costly and time-consuming treatments be eliminated, but the number of hospital visits and length of stay can be reduced. At the same time, it can detect early warning signs in time and implement preventive medical care.
The current market demand is to improve the long-term management of healthcare through telemedicine. With the expected acceleration of global aging, small cost reductions in this area will make a significant contribution to global healthcare systems.
Telemedicine and remote patient monitor
In telemedicine, remote patient monitoring is an area of focus as it facilitates the next stage of patient care. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Acute Hospital at Home has driven the development and advancement of RPM. More and more medical companies and technology companies are exploring RPM integrated technology to continuously collect data information about chronic and acute diseases through medical-grade multi-sign sensors. At the same time, they also strengthened the exploration of data security storage and transmission technology to ensure the privacy and integrity of data.
Feasibility and trend of remote patient monitoring
Many clinical studies have confirmed the necessity and feasibility of remote patient monitoring. In a study of general surgery patients’ attitudes toward remote continuous vital sign monitoring, more than 80% of patients reported that health monitoring via a smartphone app increased confidence and reduced anxiety.[2]
Today, RPM is the preferred follow-up care modality for many patients after surgery, after hospital discharge, and after emergency care. RPM adoption will continue to rise steadily as health systems increasingly rely on external tools to manage patients and data.
More than 74% of patients said that remote monitoring can play an important role in different stages such as before operation, during hospitalization, and after discharge. [3] Correspondingly, there have been many inquiries about telemedicine within the healthcare industry. Also, the U.S. Department of Health Services (HHS) has expanded telehealth services for insurance beneficiaries.
“Digital First” health plans will be available to millions of Americans in 2023.[4] This plan will test whether “full telemedicine” can work. For most brick-and-mortar healthcare organizations, this will be a major challenge. At the same time, a “fully remote” medical service team will be born. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), HIMSS (Health Information and Management Systems Society), and the Telemedicine Society of America will continue to develop standards and policies for a sustainable and equitable telehealth infrastructure.
The main workflow of RPM
The core of telemedicine lies in the need to transmit medical information to doctors and patients in a highly secure manner. The telehealth electronic monitoring platform (Telehealth Electronic Monitoring, THEM) well meets this demand, and effectively reduces medical pressure, improves medical efficiency, and saves time for patients and doctors.
The main workflow of the telemedicine electronic monitoring platform is that after the patient is monitored by wearable medical devices such as thermometers, sphygmomanometers, oximeters, and weight scales, the measured values are transmitted to the app and remote detection platform via Bluetooth for medical staff to record, evaluate, or issue an alert.
The combination of wearable medical devices and telemedicine electronic monitoring platforms can provide traceable biomarkers, allowing users to clearly see their health status and predict potential risks in advance. At the same time, digitally stored information can be more conveniently shared with doctors or teams, which is helpful for more comprehensive health analysis.
The Federation intends to use human factors and human-centered design as primary criteria for evaluating innovative applications of telemedicine6. Therefore, how to manage the needs and expectations of users, as well as the ease of use of wearable electronic products, is the key to expanding the market for telemedicine applications.
Application of wearable medical devices in RPM
Telemedicine equipment is very extensive, including mature devices such as body fat scales, blood pressure monitors, and blood glucose meters, as well as the ever-growing advanced technology of heart dynamic monitoring. At the same time, the connection is very critical in RPM, the simpler the operation, the easier it is to be accepted by the public.
Viatom wearable medical devices support Bluetooth connection, just complete pairing, data can be automatically synchronized to the cloud. This means users have easier access to healthcare services, and physicians can access more complete physiological data to process patients in real time and meet reimbursement needs.
Case Studies
A health technology platform company in the United States is building a multi-point health system for clinicians to remotely collect and monitor patient health data to improve their quality of life. The building of the digital ecosystem primarily through proprietary software and deep learning artificial intelligence. The system will help physicians to track patients’ vital signs and predict adverse events such as heart attack or stroke.
The company’s innovations focus on improving patient comfort, convenience and monitoring compliance while ensuring high data quality and continuous monitoring capabilities in many conditions. So patients can finally get the care they need without dealing with time delays, waiting room lines or worrying about their real-time health.
Viatom product lines of blood pressure, blood oxygen and body fat scales have been integrated into this company’s virtual medical service platform as front-end data collection tools. The company’s CEO said: “Cooperating with Viatom is a major advancement in our promotion of telemedicine. Wearable devices will ultimately enable faster and more convenient patient services for both patients and healthcare providers.
As a partner of this company, we are very pleased to be able to provide this innovative telemedicine platform to more doctors and medical service providers. This will help clinicians and healthcare systems provide a better patient experience, maintain continuity of care, and maintain a healthier and stronger doctor-patient relationship.
Viatom’s products can also assist in the realization of remote ECG monitoring, remote blood pressure monitoring, remote blood glucose monitoring, remote blood oxygen saturation monitoring, remote sleep apnea monitoring, etc. Applying these technologies can provide a comprehensive understanding of patient conditions and aid in clinical decision-making.
Conclusion
The future of mankind may be out of control, but there is no doubt that the future of the medical system must be informatization and remote. We believe that this telemedicine system fully embodies the two future trends of informatization and remonetization. Viatom’s wearable medical products can meet the health and life needs of patients in different situations. We hope to help improve patients’ medication compliance, improve patients’ overall health status, and continue to create new products for medical service providers, doctors and pharmacies.Welcome to contact us for more cooperation details
Reference:
- “TeleHealth”. The Health Resources and Services Administration. 2017-04-28.https://www.hrsa.gov/rural-health/topics/telehealth
- AMA Digital Health Research. Physicians’ motivations and key requirements for adopting digital health adoption and attitudinal shifts from 2016 to 2022. Available from: https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/ama-digital-health-study.pdf [cited 20 October 2022].
- Parretti C, Tartaglia R, Regina M, Venneri F, Sbrana G, Mandò M, et al. Improved FMEA methods for proactive healthcare risk assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of COVID-19 remote patient telemonitoring. Am J Med Qual. Nov-Dec 2022; 37(6):535–44.
- AMA digital health care 2022 study findings. AMA. Updated September 28, 2022. Available from:https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/ama-digital-health-care-2022-study-findings#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20physicians%20using,2016%20to%2030%25%20in%202022 [cited 20 October 2022].
