Tracking Coronavirus Symptoms with Apps, Outreach and Wearables
Prior to the pandemic, RPM tools were becoming more common — including blood pressure cuffs, blood glucose monitors and patches that track medication adherence. A 2019 survey by Spyglass Consulting Group found that 88 percent of healthcare providers have invested in, or are evaluating, RPM technologies.
But as a public health emergency continues to expedite care delivery innovations, initiatives that may have been considered ancillary have become a key strategy.
“It’s really a question of, can we provide these devices to patients directly so that we can connect the physician and the patient virtually, and allow the [physicians] to keep providing excellent care during this time,” Connor Landgraf, chief executive of Eko, a digital medical device and intelligence company, recently told Stat.
Among the recent efforts:
- At Cleveland Clinic, a partnership with Epic allows recovering COVID-19 patients to enroll in a 14-day interactive care plan using Epic’s MyChart patient portal at home. They can enter symptoms, temperature and oxygen saturation once daily. Care providers will be automatically notified if symptoms worsen.
- Providence Saint Joseph Health patients who exhibit virus symptoms but are well enough to stay home are given a thermometer and pulse oximeter that connect with solutions from Twistle, Xealth and digital platforms monitored by Providence clinicians. It’s just one part of Providence’s digital COVID-19 strategy.
- OSF HealthCare launched an outreach program for those who are at high risk of contracting the virus or who are showing early symptoms. Participants receive a telehealth kit that includes a laptop with preloaded RPM apps. Patients monitor their signs and communicate twice daily with a nurse by phone or virtual visit.
- M Health Fairview relies on GetWell Loop, cloud-based patient management software, to track and communicate with home-based COVID-19 patients via smartphone or tablet. Ninety-eight percent of users say the platform helped them avoid a hospital visit or calling the doctor, an M Health Fairview leader said.
- Looking to the future, researchers at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago are testing a small wearable device that sits at the base of a patient’s throat to measure respiratory activity that is wirelessly transmitted to a HIPAA-protected cloud where algorithms produce graphical summaries.
As monitoring projects evolve, providers must continuously review user experience, adoption rates and resulting outcomes — as well as applicable legislation (the Food and Drug Administration issued guidance in March indicating it wouldn’t object to modifications in the use or function of RPM tools during the COVID-19 outbreak).