[Telemonitoring for chronically ill patients with multimorbidity is technically feasible!]

The German healthcare system is facing challenges of an aging population with an increasing number of chronically ill patients with multimorbidity. Some of these are in need of nursing care, but there is a limited supply of care due to continuing shortage of personnel. The project, Telemedizin@NRW, funded by the Europäischen Fonds für regionale Entwicklung (EFRE NRW), addresses these challenges and pursues a holistic concept - including a technical review - for the care of chronically ill patients with multimorbidity by focusing on cross-indication telemonitoring. Cross-indication is emphasized because diseases (multimorbidity, comorbidity) are in part mutually dependent and reinforcing. Therefore, their treatment must also be holistically "thought" of across organs and disease patterns. In the project, cases from cardiology, dermatology and pneumology were considered. Based on the available project findings, the technical feasibility of telemonitoring across indications was investigated. The telemedicine platform that was used in the project and then further developed on the basis of additional needs was able to meet the technical requirements. This development demonstrated that cross-indication telemonitoring is technically and procedurally feasible. To implement such forms of care, cross-sector structures with interoperable systems must be further developed.