The clinical and economic advantages of remote, community-based physiological assessment

A prospective study documented the nutritional intakes of a large cohort of pregnant women living in Portsmouth and investigated the independent relationships of smoking, dietary intake and other maternal socio-economic factors on outcome and cardiorespiratory function of the child during sleep at home at three weeks and three months of age. Unattended overnight cardiorespiratory recording was performed and the data stored in local memory before transmission on demand via modem to Oxford next morning. The telemetry of the physiological data, entirely managed by part-time community nurses in Portsmouth, was very successful. Despite some losses, which included transmission failures, electrode or lead disconnection, and monitor malfunction, 92% of the physiological data were analysed at Oxford. Personalized physiological monitoring in the community provides an opportunity for new evidence bases that will enable a new level of individualized care.