Can Remote Patient Monitoring address many challenges in healthcare?

People who are old might need medical care and observation more often than younger people. That is to be expected as seniors are more prone to diseases and physical injury. Regular diseases aside, elders are also prone to long-term illnesses like dementia or Parkinson's disease. Moreover, lots of them even find it difficult to drive to a clinic or use smartphone applications to order a cab.  

It is estimated that the end of this decade will see tens of millions of people reach or surpass eighty years of age. The frailty increases drastically as one crosses eighty and they need constant support and care. Experts have warned that the United States is about to reach a tipping point in the area of eldercare, and the country is grossly unprepared. That is mainly because of the rapidly increasing cost of care, coupled with a dearth of home caregivers. In light of this looming problem, remote patient monitoring technology has been touted as a promising solution to address the problem of senior care.

As the name suggests, remote patient monitoring systems enable caregivers and providers to monitor a patient’s health situation outside clinical settings. The idea of a remote patient monitoring software based device is to collect the health information of a patient in real-time and transmit it to a physician. The physician can view the health vitals and know about the patient’s health situation. In other words, the doctor and patient need not even be in the same city. If the doctor sees abnormal health data, he or she can immediately notify the patient about it and have an in-person visit arranged. 

This is an excellent way for a single physician to observe the health vitals of multiple seniors from a remote location and ensure timely care. Recent innovations in remote healthcare monitoring have given immense hope to many physicians and people alike. Let’s look at some innovative remote health monitoring systems that help with senior care - 

Fall Detector

As mentioned earlier, seniors who are of 80 years and above are frail and are at greater risk of accidents and physical injury. A little slip and fall could have catastrophic results. So, a fall detector installed at home alleviates this risk and allows family members to breathe easy. A fall detector is like a camera but without the usual video feed. It detects movement patterns of people in the room and knows if someone fell. It is powered by an advanced artificial intelligence algorithm and knows the difference between a person who fell, and someone who performs activities like bending over, squatting, or anything else.

If it detects a fall, it automatically notifies people from a pre-determined list through push notifications or alerts. Moreover, since it doesn’t have a regular video feed, it ascertains privacy for the person being observed. This type of home health monitoring system also ensures peace of mind to the families of elders who might not live with them.

Wearable Diagnostic Band

This is a band to be worn on the wrist. It detects vitals like body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram at regular intervals throughout the day. In case of deviation from established benchmarks of normalcy, the device automatically notifies the families of the user and also a designated caregiver. This type of patient monitoring software is excellent for seniors who can’t afford home care, and whose family doesn’t live with them. 

This device could also work as a kind of hospital monitoring system and enable physicians to track patient health in real-time.