Mobile App-Based Remote Patient Monitoring in Acute Medical Conditions: Prospective Feasibility Study Exploring...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Health Informatics
• Virtual Care

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic strained healthcare systems, increasing the need for efficient patient monitoring solutions.
• Virtual wards and digital remote patient monitoring (RPM) have emerged as valuable tools to manage patient loads.
• Clinician workload became a critical concern due to widespread healthcare provider overwhelm.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of an app-based RPM system on clinician workload within a COVID-19 virtual ward.
• To evaluate the health economic effects, specifically clinical workload, of integrating a mobile app into a telephone-based virtual ward.
• To determine the feasibility and efficiency gains of digital RPM for post-discharge COVID-19 patients.

Main Methods:

• A prospective feasibility study was conducted over one month at an NHS hospital.
• A virtual ward for COVID-19 patients (amber zone) was repurposed for 14-day post-discharge monitoring.
• Clinical workload was compared between telephone-only monitoring (cohort 1) and a hybrid app/telephone approach (cohort 2).

Main Results:

• The app-based RPM (cohort 2) reduced mean daily phone calls from 9 to 4 per patient.
• No significant changes were observed in mean phone call duration or patient readmission/mortality rates.
• This resulted in an estimated saving of 47.60 working hours and 1.1 full-time equivalents per 100 patients.

Conclusions:

• Smartphone-based RPM technologies offer substantial reductions in clinician workload, particularly during periods of high healthcare demand.
• The pilot study demonstrated the economic and operational benefits of digital RPM in enhancing efficiency and lowering costs.
• This RPM solution, initially for COVID-19, shows potential for broader application in other clinical settings requiring improved care delivery efficiency.