Effective medicine involves constantly monitoring patients' conditions and parameters. However, there may be some difficulties that hinder access to medical assistance. Remote patient monitoring solves this issue by allowing doctors to control and analyze critical indicators without the patient's physical presence.
This guide will reveal remote patient monitoring (RPM) capabilities, mandatory features, and implementation specifics.
Remote Healthcare Digital Transformation
Telehealth focuses on providing medical services remotely. Integrating modern medicine and software solutions offer various options and potential solutions. Let's examine this area's primary branches.
Telehealthcare
Telecare uses modern technology to provide high-quality remote services. All patient data is collected using smart gadgets such as wearable sensors or cloud-based solutions.
IoT implementation
The Internet of Things has dramatically simplified and activated the relations between doctors and patients. Moreover, IoT devices help to provide higher-quality services.
AI/ML assistants
Smart assistants optimize home care services, as they can perform basic treatment optimization tasks. Moreover, automation provides patients with 24/7 support enhancing user experience and improving staff efficiency.
Remote patients monitoring
Remote monitoring is closely related to telemedicine but can be assumed to be a separate industry. As we mentioned, it allows you to track patient performance and makes it easier to adjust treatment and prevent disease.
RPM Primary Mechanisms
Let's overview the concept of remote patient monitoring. RPM technology enables healthcare providers to remotely collect patient data such as weight, blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen levels, and electrocardiograms.
Patients can also track and update their data. Further, all information will be safely transmitted to the physician in compliance with all regulations. The doctor can monitor the patient's disease and take necessary emergency measures based on the obtained data.
RPM devices
Remote monitoring uses various instruments, among them:
- Smart bracelets
- Mini monitors
- Smartwatches
- Smart patches
- Smartphones, etc.
Remote Patient Monitoring Software Examples
RPM has various uses, which are growing as technology develops. Let's consider some examples of remote monitoring applications in medicine:
Health Snap. This medical monitoring software allows users to conveniently interact with medical facilities by combining Virtual Care and Lifestyle Data. Patients with chronic diseases actively use the platform to monitor their course.
Vivify Health. The software synchronizes with monitoring devices to transmit medical data to doctors. The main goal of this solution is to reduce the number of urgent visits, preventing difficult situations in time.
Mayo Clinic. This app allows Covid-19 patients to monitor their condition after discharge from the hospital to avoid complications. Twice daily, patients use a pulse oximeter, an electronic thermometer, a scale to monitor weight loss caused by dehydration, a blood pressure monitor, and a tablet to measure vital signs.
These are just a few examples of software solutions for remote patient monitoring. The field is constantly evolving, with more new applications appearing.
The Role of RPM Systems in Healthcare
RPM solutions provide an incredible amount of benefits:
Chronicle monitoring
Remote patient monitoring can reduce the time and cost of collecting critical metrics. This way, patients receive timely, appropriate care.
Expanding the customer base
With the help of RPM solutions, medical facilities can serve more patients in a quality manner, providing quality services even to clients from remote regions.
Reduced operating costs
A Jungleworks study states that remote patient monitoring (RPM) could save up to $700 billion in telemedicine over 15 to 20 years, mainly by reducing operating costs.
By eliminating the necessity of patients' daily hospital visits, therapists can monitor a patient's health status and offer appointments through a convenient app.
Exploring medical business opportunities
The costs associated with developing the software and necessary hardware are accounted for, and the stability of RPM guarantees a return on investment. What's more, this technology will improve patient care.
Remote Patient Monitoring Adoption
To implement remote patient monitoring and get the most out of it, consider some crucial points before starting telemedicine app development.
Data collection and processing
The processing of personal health data must be secure to ensure reliability and compliance. Inadequate security measures can lead to financial losses or legal problems. Choosing the appropriate technology stack with the help of a competent software development service provider can provide the best protection against potential security threats.
Set business goals
Before launching the system:
- Assess the goals
- Address specific issues within the industry
- Determine how it could benefit the medical field
Team training
Training medical staff to use RPM software for the business is essential. The platform provides training to staff on how to utilize its features, communicate with patients, and identify ways it can assist them in their day-to-day operations.
Patient Registration
Implementing an on-board process to orient users and provide an overview of the application's features can increase customer engagement as they can interact with the platform more quickly.
Compliances meeting
Regulations are frequently changing and can be challenging to comply with. Medical businesses must adhere to the relevant laws in their region to be granted permission to operate healthcare software solutions.
Payment gateway integration
A payment gateway is needed to facilitate digital customer billing and payments. In addition, this feature will monetize the platform and provide secure payment processing within the app.
Where to Order the RPM Software?
If you plan to implement remote patient monitoring, you can choose from two options:
Choosing off-the-shelf solutions with limited functionality will be cheaper, and you can implement them faster. However, ready-made software limits functionality and can reduce data protection, resulting in possible malicious activity and financial/reputational losses.
Developing custom software from scratch enables you to meet your company's requirements and contains the necessary features that will allow you to comply with all security and regulatory requirements.
Cooperating with experienced IT vendors is better for getting high-quality RPM software. Outsourcing custom RPM product development can be a cost-effective way to capitalize on the work. When forming this type of partnership, expenses such as office rent, regular payroll, and hardware or software purchases are unnecessary. Instead, it is recommended to involve a remote team with extensive software development experience to implement the product rapidly.
Summarizing
Remote patient monitoring software benefits medical institutions and their patients, providing more efficient treatment and an improved user experience. To get the most out of monitoring technology, contact an experienced provider to develop a custom RPM solution.
