By Mudit Dandwate

Over the last few years, Indian healthcare has been through a renaissance like no other, thanks to various technologies in healthcare, of which remote patient monitoring (RPM) is one. A technology which enables patient monitoring outside of conventional clinical settings and allows increased accessibility to healthcare undoubtedly comes as a blessing for the doctors. How? By becoming the meticulous eyes and keen ears of the doctors for ailing patients whom they cannot physically reach 24/7. From enabling the doctors to continuously track patients’ health to empowering them to detect and resolve any kind of anomaly beforehand and thereby preventing a crisis, RPM’s bouquet of benefits for doctors is not just one but many. Here’s how RPM serves as the magic wand for doctors to improve the patient’s quality of treatment and life.

RPM keeps the doctors continuously updated about the patient’s health: By remotely providing the readings of health vitals of a patient to the doctors, it ensures uninterrupted tracking of the patient’s health and closely monitoring them. Integration of RPM at ward level can easily alert the doctor on an upcoming crisis that needs immediate intervention.

Helps doctors to prioritise patients and customise the treatment plan: Once patients are out of ICU and shifted to a ward, they still need to be constantly monitored. Currently, this is done manually by nurses checking on the vitals every couple of hours. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) at the ward level has the ability to detect which patients need immediate attention based on the vitals data which is continuously streamed. Not just that, RPM gives specific data on all patients which enables them to provide customised treatment plans and improve the quality of care they deliver.

RPM helps doctors to treat more patients: Not just the quality of care, remote patient monitoring also enhances the quantity of care, enabling doctors to reach out to and treat more patients. In a latest global study on patients with Diabetes Mellitus and congestive heart failure program, it has been found that integration of RPM has resulted in 97% of satisfaction with the availability of doctors and nurses and 100% satisfaction with the quality of healthcare delivered to the patients.

RPM leads to increased doctor and patient collaboration: Appropriate communication and collaboration between patients and their doctors are inevitably essential for better treatment plans and enhanced clinical outcomes. Conventional clinical settings often deter patients from being proactive in self-care and reporting about their health to doctors. RPM makes patients participate more actively in their treatment plans which strengthens the collaboration between them and their doctors. This helps the doctors to decide on the correct and effective treatment plans. The study mentioned above also revealed that RPM yields 80% patient engagement rate and 97% satisfaction with the patients’ ability to improve and manage their own healthcare needs.

Relieves doctors of extensive burden, reduces burnout and helps them to concentrate on fresh cases: RPM results in continuous, and remote updates on patients with an enhanced patient participation. This results in a better response to the treatment and an increased number of healthier patients. Also, fewer patients require in-person checkups and follow-ups, thereby giving time for the doctors to focus on fresh and more critical cases.

RPM helps in reducing hospital stays: Reducing hospital stays can significantly help in treating more patients, especially in hospitals with limited beds. In the post-surgery and recovery phase, RPM’s remote vitals tracking technology helps the doctors to track a patient’s health, provide real time diagnosis and change treatment plans without the patients having to leave the comfort of their homes.

Integration of RPM in hospitals can work wonders for doctors and health practitioners to keep track of their patients’ health continuously and prevent any adverse events.

Source https://www.financialexpress.com