What is Remote Patient Monitoring?
The introduction of new digital technologies has allowed for innovative patient care practices in the healthcare industry. Healthcare providers across the globe are beginning to implement new technology that enables remote patient monitoring, to better track and treat patients throughout the episode of care.
According to the Center for Connected Health Policy, “Remote patient monitoring (RPM) uses digital technologies to collect medical and other forms of health data from individuals in one location and electronically transmit that information securely to health care providers in a different location for assessment and recommendations. This type of service allows a provider to continue to track healthcare data for a patient once released to home or a care facility, reducing readmission rates.”1
Remote patient monitoring allows healthcare providers to collect and track a variety of health data including weight, activity, blood pressure, heart rate, vital signs and much more. After the data is collected, it is sent to the healthcare provider who can monitor their patients remotely 24/7.
There are certainly benefits of utilizing remote patient monitoring as “monitoring programs can help keep people healthy, allow older and disabled individuals to live at home longer and avoid having to move into skilled nursing facilities. RPM can also serve to reduce the number of hospitalizations, readmissions, and lengths of stay in hospitals—all of which help improve quality of life and contain costs.”1
Remote patient monitoring is not limited to any one kind of disease or disorder. The TracPatch Surface Sensor Technology is a remote patient monitoring device created to empower total knee replacement patients and keep them connected with their healthcare providers throughout the entire episode of care. The two-piece TracPatch device adheres to the patient’s leg following joint surgery and collects important activity data, range of motion, wound photos, pain scores, ambulation, and wound temperature. The data is saved in the TracPatch patient app and transferred through the cloud to the TracPatch healthcare provider app and web portal. TracPatch gives patients the ability to see in real-time the progress they have made over days, weeks and months following surgery and healthcare providers the ability to remotely monitor their patients and create individualized care plans based on each patient’s progress. For more information about TracPatch contact us today.
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). Retrieved December 20, 2019, from https://www.cchpca.org/about/about-telehealth/remote-patient-monitoring-rpm.
