By Michelle Harper, Impact Product Manager, Validic™
Health care professionals today offer a range of different health services, depending on the needs of a patient and the tools available to them. One of these is Chronic Care Management, which involves a series of educational and caregiving activities to help patients with chronic health conditions to better manage their health.
This critical offering from providers enables patients to gain knowledge and fully understand their health conditions both of which are critical to managing chronic conditions.
When patients with chronic conditions have enough support and are engaged in their health success, they are motivated to stick to their prescribed therapies. Through the work of health professional, they may enjoy a longer and reasonable quality of life.
Chronic Health Conditions in the U.S.
Did you know that four out of five adults over the age of 50 suffer from at least one chronic condition in the U.S.? This translates to more than 70 million Americans.
The statistics are staggering – and it means that managing patients with chronic conditions is critically important in order to provide better health to patients and ensure there are enough providers to offer care to a growing patient population..
Chronic conditions like hypertension, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes are not only associated with long-term impairment but also 71 percent of total healthcare costs in the U.S., according to a Quest Diagnostics survey.
Interestingly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designed a framework that has made telemedicine and remote patient monitoring a key strategy on improving the health of those dealing with multiple chronic conditions.
These compounding factors are supporting growing interest in, and use of, telehealth and remote patient monitoring.
Validic Impact: remote monitoring platform
This past spring Validic launched Impact, an industry-disrupting remote patient monitoring platform.
Impact offers chronic care and population health teams the ability to access data generated from hundreds of wearables, health apps, and in-home medical devices – like Fitbit, weight scales, blood pressure cuffs and CGM devices – with a single API connection into an existing electronic health record (EHR), care management platform or other clinical system. Chronic care teams then use Impact to build programs to monitor conditions like hypertension or diabetes.
With just a few clicks, the program administrator can set up goals and notifications.
Impact offers chronic care and population health teams the ability to access data generated from hundreds of wearables, health apps, and in-home medical devices – like Fitbit, weight scales, blood pressure cuffs and CGM devices – with a single API connection into an existing electronic health record (EHR), care management platform or other clinical system. Chronic care teams then use Impact to build programs to monitor conditions like hypertension or diabetes.
With just a few clicks, the program administrator can set up goals and notifications.
The Importance of System Usability
Today, providers are tasked with spending hours of their day within the EHR and other clinical systems, instead of with patients – contributing to significant physician burnout. Due to interoperability challenges, clinicians must use several different systems in a given day to offer quality treatment to patients, adding unnecessary work and time.
For this reason, it’s critical that remote monitoring programs are presented within existing clinical workflows, and with a user-friendly interface to enable providers and care managers to quickly view and understand data, trends, and what this information means for their patients.
In response to these needs, the Validic Impact user interface was recently updated to present PGHD within the clinical system in a more user-friendly, intuitive format. The platform offers graphs to follow data trends and easily identify values that may be out of range – so providers can take action based on the data and provide timely, data-driven care.
Diabetes data is rendered in a “log-book” view in Impact, as this is what is traditionally used in clinical practice.
Now, providers and care managers are free to focus on those individuals who are at risk of non-compliance, based not only on what the patient reports – but based on thousands of data points.
How Remote Monitoring Impacts Patients
Patient Advocate Steve Van was diagnosed with type II diabetes nearly 20 years ago, and struggled to manage his condition and his overall health.
In 2016, he enrolled in a program of care that leveraged his data he generated daily – from wearables, a Bluetooth connected weight scale, a blood pressure monitor, and a glucometer – to inform the care team.
Through this data, his care team was able to detect an unnoticed snacking habit that caused his blood sugar to rise every evening. They intervened, and Steve was able to make a change to improve his health.
“I was able to look at data that was being collected, that in the past I wasn’t able to see. I wasn’t able to see what that data really meant,” said Van, explaining how this process improved his understanding of his condition.
As a result, Steve lowered his a1c by two points and has lost 50 pounds. One major difference, he says, was his improved relationship with his providers and his deepened understanding of his health.
As exciting as the outcomes were for Steve, the fact remains that remote monitoring to inform chronic care and population health programs is still in its infancy for health systems, payers, and post-acute care providers.
There are continuous discussions around security, risk, reimbursement and how to prove ROI at scale. Some of these discussions include:
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- A remote monitoring platform like Impact that integrates into the existing clinician workflow.
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- A focus on patient experience.
- Understanding remote patient monitoring as another “tool in the belt” of clinicians.
With tools like Impact, providers, chronic care managers, caregivers, and patients will have the data they need to be on the same page in monitoring and engaging the patient in the management of chronic health conditions.
Click here to see how Impact remote patient monitoring platform can supercharge your chronic care or population health program, or connect with me on LinkedIn.