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Why Is There a Growing Demand for Remote Patient Monitoring

In recent times you must have come across the term remote patient monitoring? But what does it do and how does it continue to shape the healthcare industry for the better, making it more efficient and more accessible.

This term can be defined as an innovative healthcare delivery method that leverages technology to monitor the health of patients who are unable to access the traditional healthcare facilities or make in person appointments.

This has certainly benefitted patients as well as service providers by helping them to connect using electronic transmission of information.

As indicated by Deloitte in one of their recent articles: “Much before the COVID-19 pandemic, 88 percent of healthcare providers had already shifted and invested in remote patient monitoring (RPM) or had started planning to do so”.

Much like the videoconferencing tools that allow you to connect with your family and friends via smartphones and other digital devices – remote patient monitoring in the same manner helps patients connect with clinicians or physicians, improving access, delivery of medical care and the outcome of the results.

How Does Remote Patient Monitoring Work?

Information and communications technology have a huge role in bringing about direct and increased access for healthcare in many parts of the Globe. It simply leverages contemporary digital technology to facilitate communications between patients and service providers.

The technology empowers the patients to monitor themselves and collect data concerning their medical conditions using various tools and then electronically transmitting the data once secured to their service provider or healthcare professional.

This process also enables sensitive information in critical or emergency cases to be shared and monitored remotely throughout the day such as in the case of heart patients or during pregnancy where physiological data i.e. heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation need to be shared instantly.

At the same time, the service providers and healthcare professionals are monitoring the data and making recommendations based on them, at the hospitals, intensive care units, and other healthcare facilities.

The technology enables the service providers to remotely monitor and effectively implement necessary treatment protocol, with constant feedback and immediate alerts to make a further decision whether to alter prescriptions or recommend visiting the closest ER.

The same can be applied for post-operative care when patients need constant monitoring – which through the use of technology can be done remotely using RPM devices that enable providers to continue monitoring and treatment.

Service providers and the service healthcare professionals are monitoring the data

5 Types of Innovative Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions

Now that we’ve discussed what remote patient monitoring is, how it works, let’s look at the 5 types of remote patient monitoring technologies and innovative solutions that are either available or prototypes advancing into further stages of development:

AI-Powered Wearables

Wearable technologies are paving the way for innovative solutions to counter contemporary healthcare problems Data collection via wearable devices allows healthcare professionals to make data-driven informed decisions.

AI-Powered wearables help monitor, manage a patient’s overall health remotely. These unique devices come in the form of bands, smartwatches, earbuds, etc.

For high-risk patients, these wearable devices can monitor and collect data efficiently, round-the-clock using the most advanced hardware and software technology. This provides patients convenience as well as reduced cost, risk, and while on the contrary increasing revenue through greater access to remote patients for service providers.

This innovative technology provides real-time insights as well as continuously assesses vital signs such as pulse rate, respiration rate, temperature, and mobility via the device.

There are several AI-powered wearables available in the market and are proving to be beneficial for tracking multiple conditions such as pre and post-operative care, diabetes, Oncology, heart failure, etc.
Micro-sampling Devices:

Microsampling devices are yet another remarkable innovative technology that has the ability to collect data economically and efficiently. It collects and retrieves and analyzes biological fluid samples to create bioanalytical data with reduced errors and inaccuracy.

The devices have been designed to facilitate features that make use of fluid draws from live hosts or tubes, and through its efficient and advanced sample processes, results in accurate micro samples with little or limited training and without the need for any lab equipment.
Glucose Monitoring Devices:

Glucose Monitoring devices are primarily responsible for collecting glucose measurements at regular intervals throughout the day and directs the readings of the measurements to be translated into useful data.

Such information is integral to manage and control glucose lows and highs proactively. It also serves as a platform that provides vital insights that indicate whether improvements need to be made in terms of exercise, meals, and the effect it may have on an individual’s glucose levels as well as greatly contribute towards better remote management for diabetic patients.

Several remote glucose monitoring devices are available in the market that do not require finger pricks for glucose testing – enabling patients to keep a constant track of their blood sugar levels throughout the day all thanks to a sensor inserted under the individual’s skin.
Affordable Surgical Robots:

Robots: one of the more revolutionary ideas that had been introduced quite earlier on but did not receive much traction due to the technical complexities and high investments involved. Robotic surgical equipment is an extension of this technology and has been available in the healthcare market for quite some time enabling surgeons to receive rapid assistance with utmost accuracy.

However, like most high-end innovative technologies in the globe, surgical robots are found to be too high-priced to be afforded by most facilities and usable in most medical operations.

Robots can offer services of extraordinary nature and execute advanced tasks, such as automated machines with steady hands that aid surgeons with non-surgical tasks, such as providing the right surgical instrument, holding cameras, lights, and telescopes for long hours in the right position during surgeries.
Remote Heart Monitoring Devices:

Remote heart monitoring devices can prove to be utter lifesavers while simultaneously disrupting the current cardiology branch of healthcare.

Through the use of artificial intelligence and augment computer vision, the monitoring devices will be able to make precise diagnoses much more efficiently.

Companies currently have managed to develop devices that enable precise remote monitoring of cardiac functions of a patient through the use of their heart sounds and electrocardiogram (ECG). Using this technology and the potential it has to store sensitive and critical data – a data-driven approach may prove to be significant for the success of new healthcare protocols and pharma trials.

Remote heart monitoring devices offer considerate value to all stakeholders of the society, from providing valuable data to researchers, remote monitoring for services providers, and providing precise monitoring for cardiac patients remotely.