Remote patient monitoring and podiatry during COVID-19

REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING vs Telehealth: Which is right for you?

COVID-19 has brought to light for patients and providers the importance of Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth. While they are often lumped in one large “Telemedicine” category and are both valuable in their own ways, these two modalities are in fact different.

What is Remote Patient Monitoring?

Remote Patient Monitoring (often abbreviated as RPM) is a method of healthcare delivery that uses the latest advances in IT to gather patient data outside of traditional healthcare settings. It’s about using technologies to bridge the gap between traditional physical settings of your clinic and people living their every day lives. The most effective RPM systems often consist of consumer-friendly, wearable tech products that seamlessly integrate in to the users life, and a platform for clinics to streamline the data collected and provide a clear picture of the patients health. RPM is giving clinicians the power to know what’s actually occurring with their patients on a daily basis, as it happens, vs relying on their routine scheduled check in, or even a check in via telehealth. Patients are provided with a steady stream of biometric data to the healthcare professionals monitoring their treatment. It automates the process to an extent that makes it easier for both individual and provider to keep on top of the situations in real-time.

What is Telehealth?

Telehealth was originally created as a way to treat patients who were located in remote places, far away from local health facilities or in areas with shortages of medical professionals. While it is still used today to address these problems, it is increasingly becoming a tool for convenient basic medical care. In short, telehealth is the practice of medicine using electronic and telecommunications technologies (think zoom, facetime, skype, etc.) and services to provide care from a distance. Today’s connected patient wants to waste less time in the waiting room at the doctors, and get immediate care for minor conditions when they need it. Telehealth can be used as a tool, but maybe not a solution for high risk patients. It should be used to screen patients, triage patients, and care for patients who do not need medical intervention.

As we know, COVID-19 can be harmful and even fatal for people with compromised health, and both Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth can help these patients avoid exposure. While telehealth can provide routine care for patients with chronic disease who are at high risk, it is limited in proactively alerting the patient or physician of potential ailments as remote patient monitoring can do.

Siren has the best in class Remote Patient Monitoring solution to continuously track foot temperature, keeping patients and providers connected by helping track issues related to inflammation or injury. Temperature monitoring, in contrast to visual checks alone, has been shown to improve outcomes related to ulcers by 87%.*

Contact us to learn more about our Siren Smart Sock system.

For more information on RPM and Podiatry, click here.

*https://siren.care/research/

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