A remote patient monitoring system is a way for healthcare providers to gather, transmit and monitor patient health data outside of the clinical setting. The right system can keep your care team more attuned to your health in between visits and can help find significant shifts sooner, and treat chronic conditions more proactively.
RPM is the process of collecting physiologic data, like blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, pulse oximetry, or heart rate, using connected medical devices, and it’s often referred to as Remote Patient Monitoring. That information is then provided electronically to a health care entity where trained clinical personnel can review the information and decide if intervention or follow-up is required based on the program.
What Is A Remote Patient Monitoring System?
A remote patient monitoring system is a technology and workflow system that enables health care teams to monitor patients outside of the clinical environment, such as at home or another location. RPM is not just a single home measurement, but a continual stream of patient-generated health data that can be accessed as part of a structured care program.
A typical system comprises of several components:
- Connected medical devices
- Patient-facing software or interfaces
- Secure data transmission
- Clinical monitoring dashboards
- Alert and escalation workflows
- EHR integration
- Documentation tools
- Patient education and support
- Reporting and program analytics
The system should facilitate the action on clinically relevant information, not generate more data. But without someone to digest the blood pressure reading, to understand the patient’s baseline or what to do when the trend shifts, the blood pressure reading is of little value.
How Remote Patient Monitoring Works
In general, RPM is an ongoing process of measurement, transmission, clinical review and intervention. The details of the workflow will depend on the patient population and the provider, but should be simple enough for patients to follow consistently.
- Patient enrollment: The health care team decides if RPM is right for the patient and gives them the equipment and instructions needed.
- Data collection: patient uses a connected device to measure pertinent physiologic information.
- Secure transmission: Measurements are transmitted electronically to the monitoring platform.
- Clinical review: Data is looked at by authorized clinical personnel who determine if there are any relevant changes or trends.
- Patient engagement: Care team reaches out to patients when education, clarity and followup is appropriate.
- Clinical escalation: If there are any concerning findings, this is escalated in line with agreed procedures.
The workflow shows that device accuracy is just one part of RPM performance. Even the best piece of equipment can’t overcome bad patient onboarding, inconsistent connectivity, confusing escalation procedures, or an ineffective monitoring team to sift through the information that comes in.
Device Connectivity Matters More Than Device Quantity
The appropriate device is dependent on the condition being monitored, the clinical question being asked, patient compliance in using the device and the capacity of the care team to interpret the data collected.
For instance, a patient with congestive heart failure may have a weight, blood pressure and oxygen saturation monitoring as clinically appropriate. A patient with hypertension would likely need some different sets of data, and extraneous data could actually become “noise” and not help the patient.
What Conditions Can RPM Help With?
RPM can help people with chronic and acute conditions, when remote physiologic is needed.
measurements give clinically useful information. The typical software are:
- Hypertension
- Heart failure
- Diabetes
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Asthma
- Chronic kidney disease
- Obesity and weight management
- Post-discharge monitoring
- Cardiovascular disease
The correct monitoring plan will vary based on diagnosis and treatment, risk and clinical objective. Providers should have clear procedures as to what they consider to be a meaningful change and what they will need to do in response.
How RPM Can Improve Chronic Disease Management
A comprehensive RPM program can provide clinicians with visibility in between visits with patients. Care teams can see trends over days or weeks rather than only a single measurement at a time, during an appointment.
Potential benefits include:
- Earlier identification of concerning changes
- More informed medication management
- Greater patient engagement
- Fewer unnecessary in-person interactions
- Better continuity between visits
- More proactive chronic disease management
- Improved visibility into home-based health trends
- Greater coordination between patients and care teams
One expert level consideration is the interpretation of trends instead of individual readings. One elevated blood pressure reading may not be enough to warrant any clinical significance, and a change from the patient’s usual blood pressure may require a different response. Thus, RPM systems should enable physicians to identify actionable trends while minimizing the number of nuisance notifications.
RPM and CCM Can Work Together
While similar in intent of providing care over the long haul, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Chronic Care Management (CCM) tackle distinct parts. RPM provides objective physiologic data, and CCM enables greater care coordination, education, medication management, care planning, and patient engagement.
For instance, a patient who has hypertension, diabetes and heart failure. RPM can help to capture data on blood pressure, weight, glucose, or oxygen saturation, and CCM activities can be used to coordinate medicines, specialists, follow-up meetings, and the patient’s overall care objectives.
Tellihealth provides its accuRPM Remote Patient Monitoring solution as well as signalCCM Chronic Care Management services. It also has an integrated approach that aims to link remote physiologic monitoring with the rest of a chronic care workflow.
Why Tellihealth Is a Strong RPM Choice?
Tellihealth offers remote monitoring technology, patient support, clinical workflows, and connected devices in its RPM solution. The company’s accuRPM solution aims to enable healthcare organizations to remotely monitor patients and enable proactive intervention, and its overall platform combines RPM with CCM and other virtual care capabilities.
Tellihealth further highlights a managed approach which encompasses both technology and clinical support; providers don’t have to develop each component individually. This can be useful for organizations looking to add RPM but without establishing a dedicated internal infrastructure for device distribution, patient engagement, monitoring, and workflow management.Its Evelyn platform also helps to facilitate this connected-care approach and includes features such as integration with EHR systems, AI-powered insights, intelligent scheduling and tools to boost clinician productivity, Tellihealth says.
Conclusion
The most effective remote patient monitoring system includes robust devices, patient support, alerts that make sense, documentation, and EHR integration. Providers should assess all aspects of the patient journey, from enrolment to measurement, clinical review to escalation. Tellihealth is a solid option as its RPM features integrate technology, patient support, clinical workflows and overall chronic care management. Tellihealth offers a full-featured platform for organizations looking to create a scalable remote care program.
FAQs
Which Apparatus Are Used For RPM?
Some common RPM devices include connected blood pressure monitors, blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, weight scales and other FDA approved medical devices suitable to the patient’s condition. Depending on clinical objective and patient population, the right device is required.
Does RPM Only Work For Chronic Conditions?
Yes, RPM can be used for chronic disease management and some post-discharge and other clinical monitoring programs, when remote physiologic data can be used to provide useful information for patient care. Appropriate use is determined by the clinical need and reimbursement and regulatory requirements.
Providers Should Look For What In An RPM Platform?
These factors to consider include device connectivity, data transmission, patient usability, clinical dashboards, alert management, EHR integration, documentation, security, and patient support. Also, staffing and escalation workflows are crucial as technology by itself does not provide clinical monitoring.
Is It Possible To Combine RPM And CCM?
When the care needs of a patient require physiologic monitoring and new care coordination, RPM and CCM services can work together. RPM is about remote physiologic data, CCM is about activities that are broader in nature and are longitudinal in management and coordination.
