Long-term diseases or chronic illnesses warrant a specially tailored approach to management. Across the board, this conventionally involves a unified approach from various care members and progressive management that’s always on the move. Such a strategy hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and RPM is the answer to ensure more seamless healthcare journeys for the chronically ill. But how exactly can a hospital or practice manage various chronic diseases with remote patient monitoring? Aura Health is here today to show you how with these six options you have when it comes to managing chronic diseases with RPM.
1. Imploring virtual visits to perform check-ups remotely
One way your care facility can rely on remote patient monitoring technology to manage any chronic illness is through virtual visits. These are not just ideal for when an in-person visit may be disadvantageous but also brings the following benefits:
- It’s easier to rope in the family’s support
- Patients enjoy convenience and peace of mind
- Better patient-physician connectivity, which builds rapport
- No transport expenses for physicians and patients
- Care capacity expansion beyond resource constraints
During a virtual visit, the physician can perform ongoing evaluations. Moreover, you may also use this as a method to provide/renew prescriptions and get feedback from the patient. At the end of the call, you may also settle on agreements for follow-up and provide further patient education.
Of course, it may be necessary to complement virtual visits with in-person appointments, because this patient-doctor interaction is also important, particularly for chronic illness management.
2. Configuring patient parameters to track health patterns
Remote patient monitoring offers a depth of capabilities so you’re always on track with your patient’s illness. The technology offers a means to keep in touch with a variety of health parameters, covering long-term diseases such as:
- Diabetes
- Pulmonary conditions
- Hypertension
- Cardiovascular diseases and more
Regardless of the chronic condition your practice is helping your patient to manage, you can rely on RPM to set and track health parameters essential for that particular condition. For instance, you can configure our personalized care manager UNICA to monitor various patient health data on your behalf. That covers aspects such as blood sugar levels, heart rate, BP and so much more. In line with the specific condition and the stage of management, you can set and readjust these parameters to match the changing needs of the patient across their treatment cycle. Additionally, you can also receive alerts or warnings in case of a parameter breach for prompt intervention.
3. Using AI-driven insights for more proactive chronic care
With an intelligent RPM solution such as UNICA, physicians can further explore the benefits of having artificial intelligence on their side. Besides just helping with disease management, machine learning algorithms may also be able to provide insights into the future of the patient.
Additionally, clinical techs can also visualize data to get a more comprehensive picture with regard to abnormal trends and possibly pick up on what may lie ahead. Physicians can access AI-driven insights, complete with graphs and projections.
Besides paving the way for more proactive rather than reactive chronic care, the use of machine learning also enables the personalization of chronic care. This, in turn, improves satisfaction and trust in the provider. Beyond that, this also allows for a reduced workflow burden which is always a good thing for productivity, particularly when it comes to the performance of chronic care delivery.
4. Communicating with patients and families for follow up
To manage a chronic condition effectively, physicians and patients need to be able to communicate promptly with each other. Remote patient monitoring solutions such as our very own UNICA have provisions to that end, namely;
- Video calling
- Audio calling
- Text capabilities
These come especially in handy in certain dire conditions. For instance, when a physician notices a continuous deviation of vital thresholds beyond expected ranges, they can instantly reach out to the patient or a family member via any of these means.
In a nutshell, this means care personnel can obtain information at will when the need arises to better understand the patient’s health status and intervene accordingly.
5. Collaborating with care teams via decentralized data access
The integration of care is usually one of the biggest challenges that clinical teams face, particularly when managing patients’ conditions over the long haul. Most of these hurdles typically arise from the lack of a comprehensive data management solution, which delays or derails care transference completely.
Additionally, with a barrage of EHR systems and monitoring devices to deal with, the lack of a technology bridge, if you will, can further create silos that can compromise care quality. RPM-based chronic disease management moves to solve this by creating a singular data solution that integrates several aspects when it comes to collaborative care by:
- Streamlining communication between all parties
- Integrating massive networks of providers
- Connecting providers, EHRs, and disparate devices
As a result, care teams can enjoy a unified approach to multi-partner chronic illness management, largely due to real-time and decentralized data analytics solutions.
6. Providing reminders and tips via a personalized manager
Moreover, hospitals can also lean on remote patient monitoring technology to further improve patient follow-up and post-discharge care. Care extends beyond the hospital with certain RPM solutions such as that which we offer here at Aura Health.
For example, if your practice is helping to manage a chronic condition such as Diabetes via our RPM, your patient can receive tips on what they should be eating, as well as lifestyle guidance and much more.
Overall, RPM enables at-home care support that encompasses recommendations- depending on the exact illness- around:
- Medication
- Nutrition
- And even exercise
In the long run, these tips work to ensure more positive health outcomes for your patients.
Get RPM for superior chronic care management
Remote patient monitoring offers plenty of effective and convenient ways to manage patients’ chronic illnesses. From virtual visits to keep an eye on the patient remotely to AI-driven analytics that facilitates better care integration, RPM is helpful in long-term disease management in several ways. Additionally, with Aura’s RPM you can also automate or ease certain administrative responsibilities that come with chronic care management, such as recurring billing duties. Schedule a call with us today and enhance your quality of chronic care with Aura Health’s remote patient monitoring solution.