Remote patient monitoring is a method of healthcare delivery that uses the latest technology to gather and analyze patient’s data outside of traditional healthcare offices. The main goal of RPM is to take healthcare out of the traditional offices and clinic settings so people can stay home and live their lives normally without the constant doctor visits and check-ups. These technologies build the bridge that improves the connectivity and quality of healthcare for the patients and the providers.
RPM can be something as simple as wearing a FitBit or other health monitoring device that sends data and stats to your physician to analyze. Your physician and you can then work collectively to make changes to your lifestyle to improve your overall health and improve any medical conditions you may have. The devices used range depending on the condition that is being treated and the lifestyle of the patient. RPM focuses on fitting the lifestyle and needs of the patient and the devices are chosen accordingly.
This technology helps patients to feel more comfortable with managing their own health and hold them accountable for their choices and habits. RPM can also help doctors maintain a steady measurement of the patient and their condition. Occasional visits only give physicians a snapshot look at your health while RPM gives them consistent measurements for them to analyze and make more consistent inferences about solutions and various treatments. It’s really easy for patients to go tell their doctor what they want to hear and that they have made changes to their health regardless of if they have or not and RPm allows the physician insight as to what is happening on a daily basis.
RPM comes with a variety of benefits to help improve the wellbeing of patients who have been discharged from medical institutions and maintain their overall health while living their lives normally.
Telehealth has been around for a long time and is essentially electronic technology as a method of providing healthcare virtually. This method is ideal for situations where there is a distance between the provider and the patient, or in situations such as Covid-19 where patients are encouraged to not come into the office for safety reasons. Certain conditions do require a physical examination while others can be diagnosed and treated virtually while being handled professionally and effectively.
One of the downfalls of using telehealth for medical treatment is that id technology fails or the patient does not have knowledge about how to set up the meeting, the provider may have to require the patient to come into the office anyway depending on their condition, and some conditions cannot be diagnosed or treated virtually.
Similarly to remote patient monitoring, telehealth comes with its own set of benefits. Such as:
In simple terms the biggest difference between remote patient monitoring and telehealth is that RPM uses technologies to interact with patients to interact with them from a distance, while telehealth encompasses the industry as a whole and the technologies used to provide this type of healthcare. Therefore, telehealth can include RPM but also many other things as well. Telehealth includes all types of technologies used to collect data and exchange information for providers to use and provide care to their patients.
Also, telehealth is used more for the patient to be connected to a provider to receive treatment, while RPM can be used just by the patient to monitor their own health and make changes accordingly without a physician.