Why staying connected is important

How the OMRON connect app helps you stay in touch with your patients, wherever they are

 One of the interesting outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic is the significant increase in the use of technology to allow us to stay connected. From platforms such as Zoom, Teams, and others enabling meetings and work to be carried out remotely. To the explosion in remote patient monitoring (RPM) during the pandemic for practical reasons, such as reducing in-person visits to hospitals and clinics in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.¹

In fact, recent surveys showed a 45% to 70% decrease in patient visits in the UK, USA and Europe. The advantage of RPM being that patients can be monitored and evaluated in their homes and communities. With wearable devices leading the way in the application of this shift in how data is gathered and used, certainly within healthcare settings.¹

For example, patients with hypertension that monitor blood pressure at home and share results with their doctor or specialist achieve significantly better outcomes for their blood pressure.¹ In fact, a recent randomised controlled trial (HOME BP) concluded that self-monitored digital intervention for the management of hypertension; after 1 year led to better control of systolic blood pressure than usual care, with low incremental costs.²

Furthermore, similar benefits have been found for patients with elevated blood glucose achieving better glycaemic control with home monitoring, and randomised controlled trials have shown a reduction in deaths and hospital readmissions for patients with heart failure.¹

So, the benefits of home monitoring and sharing of data with healthcare professionals (HCPs) are multifold:

•    Decreases the need for in-person visits to hospitals and clinics¹
•    Data is available as and when required
•    Brings a sense of ‘ownership’ for patients
•    Better clinical outcomes have been recorded for hypertension and cardiac patients, amongst others¹

This brings us to the advantages of the OMRON connect app. The app is free for your patients to use and syncs with a variety of popular platforms, including: Apple Health, Google Fit, Samsung Health. Your patients can set individual targets, such as blood pressure, weight, and track their progress over time. It also allows them to compare their measurements with the same blood pressure reference values that are used by the European Society of Cardiology.

Moreover, patients can also compare their measurements to blood pressure ranges as recommended by the European Society of Hypertension. Having this data to hand presented via an intuitive dashboard makes it easier to spot trends, track progress and develop healthier habits. But where the app really comes into its own is the ability for your patients to create customised reports as PDF or CSV files and share them with you. This could help to give you greater insight into your patient’s health. It could also act as the catalyst for conversations with your patients when you do get to meet in-person.

In this way, hopefully you can see that the benefits of remote patient monitoring, when used as part of an individualised health management plan really has the potential to provide some significant outcomes.¹

If you would like to read more about the OMRON connect app, please have a look here