We use technology to track and send health data makes life easier for patients and providers. For patients, it means more convenience, fewer trips to the doctor, and fewer days in the hospital. For healthcare workers, it is easier to track patients and give them the best treatment.

What Is an Example of Remote Patient Monitoring?

To put all this background into a real-world example, let's look at a theoretical patient's experience with and without RPM. Our example patient is Betty, a 70-year-old woman who lives alone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and a history of falling. The hospital recently released her after hip surgery.

Without Remote Patient Monitoring

Betty was sent home after surgery, with a follow-up appointment scheduled two weeks later. She noticed some extra shortness of breath and a slight fever but assumed they were expected and planned to ask the doctor about them at her appointment. Unfortunately, she became so ill before that appointment that she ended up in the Emergency Room with a severe postoperative infection resulting in readmission to the hospital for IV antibiotics.

With Remote Patient Monitoring

Alliance Health Group provided Betty with a wearable monitor that recorded her blood sugar levels, blood oxygen saturation, activity throughout the day, heart rate, and hourly temperature. A phone app also prompted her to use a spirometer and record her lung volume daily. Her medical team received daily reports of her vital signs and was available to answer her questions about any unusual symptoms. When her oxygen saturation dropped, and she developed a fever, she was scheduled to come into the office for an appointment during regular office hours. A doctor treated her post-surgery infection early and quickly.

What do we do?

These are the devices we use -

Blood pressure cuff
Pulse oximeter
Glucometer
Scale
Spirometer
Thermometer
Remote patient monitoring wearables (like step counters and activity trackers)

The devices mentioned above to measure and record health data. It also includes a software component that sends this data to the medical staff who need to see it. The true purpose of RPM is to do these two jobs (record and send health data) in real-time to make managing a patient's health easier for them and their medical team.