HEALTHCARE IT The future of remote patient monitoring in post-pandemic world

Management Services

The COVID-19 pandemic elevated the healthcare sector to a high-priority, front-line industry, creating an urgent need to boost productivity and efficiency while adapting to the new needs of a worldwide health crisis. Subsequently, the acceleration of digital transformation emerged as a key trend, with the shift from contact-based to virtual care necessitating the growth of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. However, telehealth and RPM are not just pandemic trends but are predicted to grow and evolve in the post-pandemic world.

Post-pandemic shifts in healthcare

The pandemic turned out to be a reality check for the healthcare sector, especially regarding overall readiness. We realised that while we had contingency systems in place for times of crisis, they would need to be made more resilient to pressure. As a result, the post-pandemic healthcare ecosystem has witnessed a significant pivot, with a high emphasis on preventive healthcare, remote care and digital transformation.

Concerning telehealth, a perception shift is visible across the board. Today, it has been incorporated into the mainstream healthcare value chain as a tool to consult for common and chronic conditions. This has dramatically helped address capacity and infrastructure challenges in remote monitoring and patient management, especially in long-term care. In addition, the emergence of processes like smartphone-enabled monitoring of adherence to care recommendations has greatly helped improve the quality of care and the overall patient experience.

The pandemic forced almost every sector to embrace remote working, and the healthcare sector was no exception. Telenursing emerged as a key trend, with tech-driven remote services and virtual nurses quickly gaining popularity. In addition, phone services and video conferencing are increasingly being adopted as tools to check up on patients from afar.

The pandemic also resulted in an increased emphasis on the importance of improving disease surveillance and prediction models. Big data, predictive analysis and artificial intelligence are key drivers for ensuring the sector's preparedness for future healthcare crises. AI-enabled predictive capabilities also enable providers to identify patients at the highest risk, take proactive steps to mitigate risk and ensure the best preventive quality of care. In addition, machine learning tools enable healthcare providers to convert data into actionable insights in realtime, automate manual tasks and streamline processes.

The evolution of RPM RPM, a subset of telehealth, involves utilising digital tools to track and document a range of health parameters, analyse the data, and transfer the same to healthcare providers for accurate assessment and decision making. This reduces hospitalisation, improving the patient's quality of life while lowering capacity challenges for providers.

Although RPM is not a new concept, the emergence of digital technologies has undoubtedly given it a new form. The earliest forms of RPM involved landline phones, telephone calls and telecommunicated examinations. In the era of digital medicine, this has evolved into sophisticated and easily accessible systems and devices to track various parameters and chronic health conditions, such as glucose monitoring, cardiac monitoring, pain levels and management, pill tracking, mental health and many others. Mobile RPM (or mRPM) has emerged as a key trend, with apps prompting patients to input essential details and providers receiving alerts if key parameters deteriorate. Use cases of RPM have also involved the discharge of patients into 'virtual wards', enabling post-discharge monitoring and quick identification of the need for re-hospitalisation.

The future of RPM

The pandemic greatly accelerates the uptake of RPM in healthcare - a trend that is sure to witness an upward trajectory in the post-pandemic world. The global RPM market has been predicted to reach 117.1 billion by 2025, with a quintuple increase since 2020. Automation is tailoring the future of work across sectors, and technologies like AI and ML also drive this shift in the healthcare sector. With the rise in adoption, the data from telehealth systems would also have to be integrated into patient health records for a seamless patient-provider engagement.

The future of RPM is likely to involve using predictive and prescriptive tools to deliver accurate and high-quality care to patients and empower them with the tools for proactive and preventive healthcare management. Today, we are also grappling with a healthcare access gap in rural and difficultto-reach areas, and RPM holds the potential to bridge this gap as well.

As digital technologies become more accessible and mainstream, the adoption of RPM will only increase. This will reduce challenges such as administrative costs, staffing shortages and disease communicability for providers while improving ease of access, convenience and quality of patient care. We are also seeing increasing acceptance of RPM among patients, with a survey by MSI International revealing that four in five consumers favour remote patient monitoring, especially for managing chronic conditions.

Overall, we are seeing a shift from a reactive to a proactive and predictive care system, driven by the intelligent use of digital tools to enhance care and improve the sector's resilience. RPM will abide to grow and evolve in line with the same.