Remote Patient Monitoring & Digital Asthma Monitoring: A Breath of Fresh Air

RPM is Providing New Hope for Patients with Asthmatic Conditions 

Asthma, a chronic disease that affects millions of people, ranges in severity and treatment potential. The disease produces swelling and narrowing of the bronchi and bronchioles after the onset of an inflammatory reaction, caused by an erosive or allergenic trigger.

Those suffering from asthma require frequent medical attention due to the urgent nature of asthma attacks. This urgency creates a variety of accessibility issues for patients living with the condition. While asthma can’t be cured, the capacity for treating it is growing, and telemedicine is at the forefront of these advancements.

Urgent Care: A Regular Occurrence

Similar to other allergies, the severity of adverse reactions varies, with many people facing life-threatening episodes of the disease which require emergency care. Due to the critical nature of the illness and the attacks it creates, patients will often seek out emergency services for things as routine as obtaining a prescription or even minor episodes related to the illness. This anxiety, and the current gaps within preventative monitoring of the condition, result in patients with asthma seeking out an overwhelming number of hospital visits, which greatly increases the cost of medical services.

For asthma patients, this critical need for medical attention is burdensome, with patients having to compromise time and money in ways that make day-to-day life difficult to maintain. From a financial perspective, the cost to patients living with asthma is often unsustainable, which results in many patients abandoning routine treatments and instead ending up in urgent care when complications occur.

Preventative Potential of Remote Patient Monitoring

The nature of asthma corresponds well with the benefits that telemedicine offers. By providing alternatives to in-person visits, as well as preventative, real-time monitoring capacities, telemedicine takes the anxiety and time-consuming visitation requirements out of asthma treatment. Various technologies such as e-diaries, wearable devices, and digital inhalers, among many others, are contributing to the growing ease of at-a-distance treatment of asthma. While patients are not required to directly seek out care in person, these technologies actually bring patients closer to the medical care they need to live productively and safely.

Many studies, including those applied in student groups, showed excellent results, with cost reduction and patient empowerment being consistently observed throughout trials. Telemedicine has also allowed individuals living in remote areas and urban environments with higher allergenic risks to receive regular, specialized care that would have otherwise been inaccessible to them. While remote patient monitoring does not offer a complete solution that will entirely replace in-person care for these patients, it does offer a safer, more preventive approach to treating asthma that directly improves the health and lives of patients living with the condition.

Accuhealth specializes in the remote patient monitoring of asthma and allergy-related conditions. Our devices and around-the-clock clinician teams allow patients to take control of their health in ways that actively improve their lives and benefit their health.

To learn more about Accuhealth and RPM, access the resources below.

1. How to Set Up Your Remote Patient Monitoring System
2. The Complete Guide to Remote Patient Monitoring

If you are curious about CMS changes that may affect your practice, check this out.