Basics of Remote Patient Management

Also known as remote patient monitoring, remote patient management (RPM) is a method of healthcare delivery that utilizes telehealth technology to gather patient data outside of traditional care settings. In this lesson, our experts offer a brief overview of RPM and explain how it can enable clinicians to better manage the health of their patients by moving care into the place where they’re most comfortable.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• What RPM is, and how it works
• How 99.9% of patient care time can take place at home
• How RPM gathers and shares patient data
• How RPM lets clinicians better manage patient health

What’s the difference between telehealth and remote patient management (RPM)? The former is a broader term that describes all types of technology-based interaction between clinicians and patients — from phone calls to videoconferencing to the collection and analysis of patient data via remote devices. The latter is a specific type of telehealth that focuses on the gathering and utilization of patient data for specific clinical processes.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• Why telehealth includes but is not limited to RPM
• Why video and phone calls can be considered telehealth
• How remote patient management is a type of telehealth
• Why RPM refers to the remote gathering of patient data

Once perceived as a means to treat senior patients and chronic conditions — and still highly effective for those populations — RPM programs have become prevalent in the treatment of many other conditions, too. As our experts explain in this lesson, these include (but are not limited to) mental health, high-risk pregnancy, respiratory therapy, and a variety of other situations customized to patient needs.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• Why RPM is used across many populations and care specialties
• How providers use RPM to reduce utilization & hospitalizations
• How UMMC built a RPM program to manage diabetes
• How a leading organization uses RPM to manage heart failure

In this lesson, our experts explain the concept behind mHealth. Short for “mobile health,” mHealth is a way of disseminating healthcare-related information, most often via the use of smartphone and/or tablet apps or computer programs. Using this software as nutrition, fitness, or general health aids, people can utilize mHealth as a form of self-management, capturing data for themselves without the involvement of clinicians.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• How mHealth is a shortening of "mobile healthcare"
• How this form of telehealth helps people capture their own data
• Why mHealth often takes the form of self-management
• How mHealth operates without direct clinician involvement

From providing clinicians with the ability to monitor patients between visits to promoting patient engagement with their own health, remote patient management has the potential to improve care in a number of ways. RPM also encourages the proactive (as opposed to reactive) adjustment of care plans by giving providers more insight into what’s going on with patients and the chance to intervene before a (high-cost) crisis occurs.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• How RPM can improve care across the continuum
• How RPM empowers clinicians to better monitor patients
• How RPM improves patient engagement and adherence
• How RPM lets providers make proactive care adjustments

Although RPM was developed primarily with the care of seniors in mind — and although this age group still represents a key patient population in RPM’s ongoing mission to improve the care continuum — today’s programs have evolved to include a much broader span of ages. Our experts explain how RPM is now used in the treatment of patient populations that include diabetics and high-risk pregnancies, among many others.
In this lesson, you will learn:

• Why RPM originally focused on senior care
• How RPM has expanded to support more age groups
• Examples of current conditions currently treated by RPM
• Why the range of treated conditions continues to expand