Telemonitoring - Transforming Healthcare, Episode 6

Telemonitoring is the use of information technology to monitor patients at a distance, involving recording vital signs (blood pressure and pulse) and transmitting this information electronically.

Telemonitoring allows the patient's medical team to track and monitor vitals on a regular basis, then use this data to identify signs of deterioration and intervene promptly to prevent hospital admission.

Before the pandemic, data suggested that routinely monitoring hospitalized patients with continuous pulse oximetry and heart rate devices was associated with reduced mortality.

In a study involving more than 100,000 patients discharged, early recognition of hypoxemia and respiratory depression were largely responsible for the observed decrease in mortality.

Home telemonitoring emerged as a potential solution to reduce healthcare costs.

According to a meta-analysis, healthcare costs showed ambiguous results, with 3 studies reporting an increase in healthcare costs, 3 studies reporting a reduction, and 4 studies reporting no significant differences.

Healthcare cost reductions from telemonitoring were realized through a reduction in hospitalization.

Healthcare cost increases from telemonitoring were caused by the high costs of the telemonitoring program or increased healthcare utilization.

Telemonitoring of hypertension in pregnancy is likely to become commonplace in the next 5 to 10 years.

Research must be directed to ensure that telemonitoring for hypertension in pregnancy is used more safely before its general introduction into daily clinical practice.

Raising women's awareness of their health condition through telemonitoring could improve both pregnancy and long-term health outcomes.