Building on top of the topic from the last post, in this post I would like to further talk about remote patient monitoring (RPM), a term and field that is extending the boarder of telemedicine.
The fall detector discussed in the previous post belongs to the group of wireless remote patient monitoring devices, which is expected to grow at the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77%, leading to a global market size of $950 million by 20141. The larger category, the entire RPM industry, is also experiencing a high CAGR of 56% leading a total market of $8 billion by 20122.
An example is that in 2008 Bayada Nursing home partnered up with Ideal Life to send out internet-connected remote monitoring systems to more than 200 U.S. patients with limited mobility and chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure (CHF) and hypertension3. The benefit was tremendous – the hospitalization was reduced by 54% for these patients. It means huge savings for both the patients and the hospitals and at the same time without reducing the quality of care. These devices could send real time information to patients’ nurses and doctors to tell them the health condition of their patients. It is meaningful because for chronic diseases, many key symptoms will develop unnoticed. For example, if a patient with CHF gained more than 3 pounds over the last 24 hours, it could mean there is a fluid retention in the patient’s body3. Then the wireless body weight scale could transfer this data to the patient’ doctors and nurses, which allows the care givers to either visit the patient or make necessary adjustment in the treatment and medication3.
Besides Ideal Life, other companies, such as Philips or GE, have also developed similar products or systems to detect and transfer real time patient data from patient’s home to the care givers. The following videos are some examples.
Products from Ideal Life:Products from GE
Reference:
1. Roy Mark, Remote Patient Monitoring Set for Explosive Growth, August 2009, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care-IT/Remote-Patient-Monitoring-Set-for-Explosive-Growth-144720/
2. DATAMONITOR, Homecare telehealth expected to grow despite current barriers to adoption, August 2007, http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2007/08/30/2897900.htm
3. Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Remote Monitoring Yields Healthier Patients, November 2009, http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/mobile-wireless/221900414?pgno=1
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