Remote Patient Monitoring, is a platform that monitors patients with chronic conditions using remote medical devices such as blood pressure cuffs, glucose meters, and weight scales. With these devices, patient data is collected daily and provided to healthcare providers to monitor patients’ health trends.

In its simplest form, RPM involves the use of connected electronic devices to record personal health and medical data in one location that is reviewed by a provider at a different location.

RPM can be used to treat both chronic and acute conditions, enabling clinicians to keep tabs on patients in-between clinic visits or when in-person care is not possible.

For chronic care, in particular, RPM enables clinicians to observe patients in near real-time, gather necessary data, allowing clinicians the ability to make  adjustments to improve care outcomes. This type of continuous tracking is helpful for patients with ongoing care needs, such as those with diabetes, heart conditions, asthma, hypertension, mental illness, and, more recently, long COVID, that is, the long-lasting symptoms following COVID-19 infection and recovery.

RPM programs employ the use of various types of devices, like weight scales, pulse oximeters, blood glucose meters, blood pressure monitors, heart monitors, and even specialized monitors for dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Another category of RPM devices that can be used to track patients' health over the long term are wearables. These can range from more consumer-facing devices like smartwatches to continuous blood glucose monitors.

Wearables especially appear to be in demand, with Deloitte predicting that 320 million consumer health and wellness wearable devices will ship worldwide in 2022. That figure could jump to 440 million units shipped by 2024.

Increasingly, health systems and providers are leveraging RPM to care for patients suffering from a myriad of conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and COVID-19. In addition, regulatory changes enacted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have bolstered this trend, indicating that RPM is becoming an important part of care delivery.

Why use Remote Patient Monitoring? 

Studies show that Remote Patient Monitoring can achieves a 75% reduction in hospital readmissions. Patient satisfaction with the program is over 90%.

• Better access to the healthcare team. Since RPM devices report real-time health data, practitioners are kept in the loop on their patients' current health status, providing patients, patients family and caregivers with more peace of mind.
• Fewer trips to the practitioner's office. This means less exposure for patients to other illnesses and fewer expenditures in both time and money for travel.
• Improved quality of care. With RPM, practitioners gain a more holistic understanding of a patient's health condition, which can lead to more accurate adjustments in medications, fewer emergency room visits, and more time between in-office visits.
• More control over personal health. PHM's RPM service comes with a user-friendly application for a phone or tablet that provides patients with instant analysis of their wellbeing. This allows for small adjustments to their daily lifestyle that can strengthen management of a condition and help patients better recognize abnormal changes and developments.
• Better support and education. Since the healthcare team receives more detailed information about a patient's health status, practitioners can provide better individual support and education.