Telehealth has grown rapidly over the last few years. Telehealth software usage increased by 50% alone during the first quarter of 2020 and by 154% in the last week of March 2020 alone compared to the same time in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the pandemic, telehealth companies could help by increasing access to care, limiting disease exposure for staff and patients, conserving limited supplies of personal protective equipment, and reducing patient demand on facilities. Improvements in telehealth policy could help expand access to care both during and after the pandemic.
What does this imply for your profession or clinic? It implies that telehealth is here to stay, and it’s important to identify the best telehealth partner who can meet the growing need for virtual treatment while also providing you with a competitive advantage.
One methodology and a subset of telehealth is remote patient monitoring (RPM), a process that uses technological devices to track patient data outside the clinical environment such as home, school, office, and then transit data to clinicians or other care coordinators.
Here are the four things to look for when choosing a telehealth or RPM company in 2022:
Easy-to-use technology for patients and providers
Not everyone is tech-savvy. The system must be simple to use for everyone across the board. Logging in, getting into the session, taking measurements, and using the features should all be quick and straightforward for both patients and providers.
For providers: Providers are already working under strict deadlines. They will not use a technological platform if it is difficult to understand or utilize. When choosing a partner, you should be allowed to test and receive brief orientation before you get into the contract. The platform should give you more freedom to work efficiently. For instance, if you are getting a Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) partner, its platform should support automation of alert systems, billing and reimbursement calculation, and with rich visualizations of data analytics.
For patients: Patients who use telehealth are usually elderly with chronic diseases. To ensure patient adherence and satisfaction, telehealth program should give patients confidence to utilize. For instance, if you are looking for an RPM partner, the monitoring devices should be easy to operate and connect to a mobile application even without too much assistance from their family or caregiver.
Seamless clinician workflow
Telehealth technologies that integrate easily into physicians’ work processes are critical, especially given the substantial administrative burden that professionals already suffer during the pandemic. RPM powered by AI that delivers a complete picture of a patient’s health status aids clinical workflows. DrKumo, a leader in highly scalable remote patient monitoring (RPM), use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze patient-generated health data acquired by sensor fusion-equipped medical devices. This novel method improves the efficiency and effectiveness of clinicians’ workflow for chronic disease and acute management, post-operation, hospital at home programs.
Patient data security (HIPAA-compliant)
Best telehealth companies offer solutions and technology that put patient data security first. This requires creating and deploying technology platforms that make use of the most recent technological and data-transfer security improvements, such as a variety of data encryption techniques, extensive system testing, and other relevant variables. Choosing a security-focused and HIPAA-compliant RPM provider necessitates developing a healthcare delivery system that involves patient data protection, ensuring patients’ sensitive data is kept private. And this could be crucial in guaranteeing the degree of patient participation and trust needed to unlock the potential that telehealth is gaining recognition for.
Continuous Real-time Support
The main goals of telehealth include the following: making care accessible to people who live in isolated or rural areas; making services readily available and convenient for people with limited mobility, time or mode of transportation from their place; improving communication and care coordination among members of a health care team and a patient; supporting self-management of diseases. If you want to achieve all of these goals, it is very important to choose a telehealth partner that provides continuous real-time support.
For instance, health monitoring devices that record and transmit information such as heart rate, blood glucose, oxygen level, or blood pressure continuously in real-time allow clinicians to provide timely medical intervention when necessary. Continuous Real-time Remote Patient Monitoring can act as a conduit for faster prioritization of care delivery, triaging each case, and improving communication by gathering, storing, and using patient data in real-time for better medical decision-making.
Takeaway
If you are a healthcare provider or clinic administrator, thinking about adopting a telehealth platform might be a little overwhelming. There are many of telehealth partners to select from, and some will help you expand your practice’s reach, while others will limit it. Best telehealth companies support ease of use of technology for patients and providers, seamless clinician workflow, patient data security and continuous real-time measurement and transmission.
For more information about Next-Generation Remote Patient Monitoring, contact DrKumo.
