Lucy Mackillop, chief medical officer, Sensyne Health, considers the increase in digital health use during the pandemic, and remote patient monitoring is a lasting legacy.
In the last 12 months, the healthcare industry has faced huge challenges due to the pandemic and has made significant, rapid changes to its ways of working. One of the biggest shifts has been the greater adoption and use of technology by hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. In March 2020, 10% of patient appointments were made remotely compared to 3.5% in March 2019 and registrations to the NHS app increased by 111%. Investment in digital healthcare has meant that many patients can now monitor their symptoms or illnesses from home and share their health status with clinicians without having to visit a hospital or GP practice. It has also enabled virtual appointments, reducing face-to-face consultations which has been particularly important for the maintenance of quality care during times of social distancing.
This model has had success, with many people keen to embrace virtual care. Recent research conducted by YouGov revealed 49% of people believe that being able to track symptoms or use monitoring devices to assess health concerns, has been important and helpful during the pandemic, and 52% of people keen to have the option of remote consultations with healthcare professionals when the pandemic ends.
Clearly, there is a real imperative for remote patient monitoring (RPM) and management to continue to support patients and drive efficiencies across healthcare systems, especially after the pandemic. As we move beyond the initial uptake of digital healthcare, we must consider how tools like RPM can be implemented in new care pathways and assist healthcare professionals to manage increasing demand without over-stretching already strained resources.
The role of RPM during the pandemic and beyond
When the pandemic first hit, RPM gave healthcare providers the option to deliver care to patients in their homes, reducing the risk of infection. It also allowed patients whose follow up care could be delivered remotely to be discharged from hospital earlier, alleviating pressure on hospital resources. In such cases, if a patient's condition deteriorates while at home, RPM software can convey information to healthcare professionals in near real-time.
While RPM technology has played a crucial part in care delivery during COVID-19, its use doesn’t start and end with the pandemic. It has the potential to enhance or radically change existing healthcare pathways, improve operational efficiency and help deliver better patient outcomes.
For example, Sensyne Health’s GDm-Health digital therapeutic app, helps pregnant women and their care teams proactively monitor and manage diabetes remotely. The risks to mother and child associated with this condition are significant if not treated, and include an increased rate of caesarean section, pre-eclampsia and premature birth. Clinicians use the system to monitor blood glucose levels remotely, and prioritise care to women needing it most whilst still providing efficient and effective care to all patient cohorts. Mums-to-be upload their blood glucose readings from home, and communicate with their care teams through the app. The need for face-to-face appointments is reduced, administrative time is saved, and quality of care is enhanced.
How RPM can support drug discovery
The fundamental role of RPM is to improve the quality of data to deliver timely, effective and safe care. Data from RPM applications can be uploaded to Electronic Patient Records (EPR) and combined to form a rich dataset from which machine learning algorithms can be developed for, for example, prediction of certain outcomes that are important to patients, clinicians and hospital managers to aid better decision making, resource utilisation and ultimately patient outcomes. Furthermore, this data can be anonymised, aggregated and used to analyse patterns within a disease and inform clinical research aimed at drug discovery and disease prevention. Gaining insights from anonymised patient data may allow for faster development of new treatments.
Attitudes towards using patient data, such as those collected from RPM devices to support drug development and discovery, have changed since the pandemic. The YouGov research found that now, 64% of people are happy to share personal health data to support the development of treatments and vaccines for conditions including COVID-19. Before the pandemic, just 13% trusted technology companies to handle anonymised NHS patient data confidentially.
COVID-19 has provided the motivation for both patients and clinicians to embrace new technologies including RPM. This change is likely to be a common feature of routine clinical practice going forward. Demand on our healthcare systems will continue to rise, but it can be better managed with technology that supports earlier detection and intervention.
