Currently, many types of cutting-edge devices can be used to supervise a patient’s health — delivering critical information to professionals and allowing for a more unique and personalized healthcare strategy, one that adapts to the patient and their way of life. In this article, Caremate is going to dive into the main fields of healthcare that are using and adopting remote health monitoring systems.
Table of Contents
What is a remote health monitoring system?
A remote health monitoring system is a technology that enables people to monitor their health status and vital signs remotely.
Remote health monitoring is a relatively new concept. It relies on the use of various electronic devices, such as wearable sensors, cameras, telehealth services, etc, to transmit information about the patient’s condition. The data is then transferred to a remote healthcare team who can provide real-time care advice and guidance. The benefits of this type of monitoring are many, for example, it’s convenient for patients, who are spared the burden of driving often long distances to
Types of patient care that use remote health monitoring systems
Remote health monitoring systems are used for the following types of patient care:
Home monitoring
Monitoring patients at home or in a care facility, and providing feedback to the medical team. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why these tools proliferated with such ease. The advantage of being able to supervise your conditions and illness – or your general health – from the comfort of your own home, or car, or office, or at the gym, is mind-blowing, to say the least. So much so that most tech companies, Google, Samsung, Apple, Phillips, etc, are investing heavily in remote care devices. Integrating their software and capabilities into their gadgets.
At CareMate we offer easy-to-use, multi-function, highly dynamic home care monitoring systems and tools. Certified by the CDC equipment that has passed multiple tests and has FCC approval for use in a professional environment.
Remote surgery
Remote patient monitoring tools are also used in the operation room — in surgical procedures without the need for an onsite room, such as laparoscopic surgeries, endoscopic surgeries, and more.
Emergency response
Due to the advance of robotics, drones, body cams, and other devices, these types of tools are being employed out in the field, on the front lines of medicine — Providing telemedical support during emergencies such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
Medical Education
Remote health monitoring devices also provide medical training to doctors who are not onsite in real-time through video conferencing or other methods of digital communication tools such as Skype, Facetime, etc., which allow them to see and hear each other while they work together remotely on a case study or patient information sheet.
It also allows patients to know more about their conditions — giving them key information on where they are, how they are progressing, and what they can do to improve.
In-hospital patient monitoring
These types of platforms allow hospitals to better distribute their resources, optimize their flow, and automate certain functions that were previously taken care of by their staff. While patients are in their care, certified medical devices can administer medicine, check on vitals, and even supervise – based on algorithm analysis and AI – a patient’s progress. These systems are becoming so complex that they are even capable of creating highly accurate predictive readings that doctors can later leverage for care.
Digital therapeutics
Although it is a generally new trend, one that began with the COVID pandemic, remote patient monitoring systems, and telemedicine devices have leaped from the physical into the mental. They are now being employed to treat emotional maladies and help patients mentally. Digital therapy has slowly but surely taken the world by storm — easily becoming one of the biggest game-changers in therapeutic care since Freud published his works.
Population healthcare model
Remote Patient Monitoring systems collect a lot of data on a person’s health. Not only that, but because a huge number of these devices are multifunctional they manage to collect pivotal information from multiple bodily sources. Your vital physical signs, your degree of emotional stability, sleep patterns, physical activity, and even new conditions like a cold, or an infection. All these data points can be used by the healthcare industry and key players to create predictive models.
For example, let’s say you woke up sick – with stomach flu – that’s a data point. If more people in your neighborhood or region are having the same problem, and it’s being picked up by these devices, the CDC can create a map of the contagion and even use GPS triangulation to figure out a pattern. What does everyone have in common? Maybe it’s a contaminated water line. Maybe, everyone, that’s sick when ate at the same restaurant. Maybe there’s a new outbreak that has to be supervised.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These devices can be used by insurance companies and actuaries to better their premiums based on a person’s unique medical makeup — and not an actuary table based on age, height, and other factors.
Big data is one of the biggest forces driving today’s culture and its evolution and Remote Patient Devices are at the cutting edge of that push.
Benefits of a remote health monitoring system
Remote health monitoring systems are a great way to stay on top of your health and monitor it from the comfort of your own home. They can help you track anything from your heart rate to your blood sugar levels.
The benefits of remote health monitoring systems are numerous. It can provide you with peace of mind and ensure that you know exactly where you stand in terms of your health. You will also have an easier time scheduling appointment, which is especially convenient for those who live in rural areas without easy access to doctors or hospitals.
