The Future Of Remote Patient Monitoring
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Health sensors that attach to the body can now transmit vitals and teach patients to be proactive about their health while cutting care costs and fostering improved doctor/patient relationships
TIME presented a special report titled “10 Ideas That Make A Difference,” introducing its list by writing, “They can be as huge as a new constitution or as tiny as a medical microchip. In this special report, TIME explores innovations that are changing the way we work, live, pray and play.”
Among the innovations listed was “bioelectronics, an emerging field whose leaders are developing small, wearable, wi-fi-enabled sensors that can detect all kinds of vital information — heart rate, body temperature, hydration levels — and relay them to your doctor or your smartphone in real time.” TIME points out one benefit of these remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices is, “Once patients have the big data about their bodies … they can be proactive about their health, cut care costs, and foster better relationships with their doctors.”
Bioelectronics is further defined by the University of North Carolina as the “application of electrical engineering principles to biology, medicine, behavior, or health.” Bioelectronic engineers use what they know about electronics and biology to create products that prevent, monitor, or diagnose a disease. RPM uses forms of bioelectronics to transmit data about patients’ vital information - heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature can all be checked and the results sent to a physician or smart phone instantly via microchips attached to the body.
TIME is not alone in praising bioelectronics. MeMD lists several RPM devices on its list of “8 Technologies Revolutionizing Health & Fitness” from a “microchip that monitors blood … and delivers and advance warning” of a heart attack to a bionsensor “tattoo” created by MC10.
The bionsensor developed by MC10 can measure a patient’s blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate and is so unobtrusive it has been compared to wearing a tattoo or bandage. According to MeMD, the average price range of MC10’s biosensor is $1 - $10 and the “potential cost savings of using biometric devices to monitor patients with serious conditions” is 88%.
The idea of “wearing your doctor,” as TIME put it, could be game changing. Patients have already adopted bioelectronic devices like an attachable pedometer, but making RPM devices mainstream is an industry goal.
As the biometrics industry moves towards its goal, the healthcare industry should benefit as well. In addition to cutting care costs and building better doctor/patient relationships, bioelectronic and other RPM devices could replace some appointments and, by extension, missed appointments.
The U.S. Army reports the average cost of an appointment at Martin Army Community Hospital in Fort Benning, GA is $93.41 and, on average, 6 - 7 percent of all appointments made are eventual no-shows. Capt. Kim Decker, chief of MACH's Healthcare Management Division said “no-shows in January cost the hospital almost $260,000.”
Not all of those no-shows would have been prevented with RPM devices, but appointments that were scheduled as follow up visits could have utilized them, not only eliminating the chance of a no-show but eliminating the need for an appointment at all. At nearly $100 per no-show, the savings would be significant.