Part 2: Remote patient monitoring benefits health outcomes

What are three benefits of using remote patient monitoring devices?

Remote patient monitoring technologies help individuals live independently and, in many cases, be discharged from brick-and-mortar care locations more quickly. In addition, these devices have the ability to collect important health information, which should be integrated into the existing patient electronic health record. This data can offer providers insights into their patients’ health without an expensive office visit.

These are three important reasons individuals and healthcare organizations should consider using remote monitoring:

1. Can help reduce unnecessary ambulance trips and hospital admittances, which can help lower medical costs. 
2. Allows for immediate connection to an empathetic voice without waiting in times of need. In emergency and non-emergency situations.
3. May be integrated into home health systems and supports, which allows care providers to be more efficient during visits. Some information they would normally collect manually will already be collected and added to the caregiver’s device

How can new technologies improve medication adherence?

New technologies and devices can help an individual stay on track with their care plan. Forgetting to take prescribed medication is a frequent issue following discharge from the hospital or after a routine visit. Automated medication reminders can help mitigate this issue. With the addition of monitoring, patients have the support of reminders as well as a remote team to better understand any social determinants of health challenges that may impact medication adherence. Importantly, the technology provides physicians a view into what really happens in the home, giving them the ability to prescribe additional services like personal care if the member needs it.

How can an organization use predictive analytics to better understand who will or won’t take medications?

Medication management and adherence is an important element of overall care. By working with personal care aides, organizations can collect hard-to-get observations that wouldn't otherwise be available. This information can be fed into predictive analytics models to improve forecasts for medication adherence.

Personal care aides could test various adherence strategies, while healthcare organizations learn from that direct field experience. From there, it’s relatively easy to iteratively improve upstream processes and systems to capture the right data based on those learnings to maximize overall member health and well-being.