Remote monitoring and care of people at home or on the move using sensor devices

Purpose: 

Wireless communication between measuring devices and a mobile application

Relevance: 

A more continuous monitoring of relevant healthcare parameters can increase the quality of life of a patient, because it can provide early indicators of deteriorating health. Earlier intervention decreases complications. Also, these warning signs can be monitored by software algorithms that can identify trends, and send alerts to healthcare professionals when a measurement that exceeds the preset upper or lower values. Using graphs to show the measurements over a period can help motivate the patient to adhere to dietary or exercise regimes: the patient becomes more conscious of the positive effects of these efforts. Also, patients who use these devices may feel more secure about their health status, knowing that it is being tracked and checked

Domain: 
Telemonitoring
Scale(s): 
Citizens (at home and on the move)
Context: 

Consider a middle-aged patient with chronic heart failure who needs to measure his/her blood pressure on a daily basis. The blood pressure device can send the measurement results to a mobile application through a wireless connection. These results can then be sent from the mobile device to a chronic care management centre or to a responsible healthcare professional. The information is 52 monitored both by rules-based logic implemented as part of the application, and by qualified nurses on an on-going basis. If needed, a physician is informed about any relevant degradation in the patient’s health status, so that preventive measures can be taken at an early stage. As a result, patients’ complications can be detected early, and the patient is less likely to return to the hospital. 

Information: 
Blood pressure values
Participants: 
Patient
Healthcare professional
Functional process flow: 
  1. Patient measures his/her blood pressure with an electronic blood pressure meter
  2. The blood pressure meter sends the measured data to a smart phone , tablet or PC
  3. The mobile application shows the latest measurement. 
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