Basics of Remote Patient Management
In this course, our experts describe the basic concepts of telehealth, including definitions of remote patient management and mHealth.
In this course, our experts describe the basic concepts of telehealth, including definitions of remote patient management and mHealth.
What is telehealth, exactly? How is it different from remote patient management (RPM)? And where do mHealth and other concepts fit in? In this course — an essential starting point for exploring the larger world of telehealth and telemedicine — our experts describe the basic ideas behind the delivery of technology-based healthcare, including in-depth examinations of RPM, IVR, mHealth, and other care delivery methods.
Defining telehealth (and the synonymous term telemedicine) as a concept is an essential starting point for understanding remote patient management. In this lesson, our experts offer a basic definition of telehealth — i.e., the use of increasingly sophisticated information technologies to gather and share information in a healthcare setting — and then go on to describe some of its more familiar incarnations, such as RPM and mHealth.
In this lesson, you will learn:
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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: