How Remote Cardiac Monitoring Can Help Manage Heart Failure

Heart failure affects millions annually. Furthermore, it has a tremendous economic impact on the healthcare system. However, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) can be an effective part of an overall treatment program for this chronic condition.

Clinical and Financial Impacts of Heart Failure

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 6 million people in the United States have heart failure. It’s both a clinical and economic burden, costing an estimated $43.6 billion in 2020. This figure is projected to grow to $69.7 billion in 2030. Heart failure accounts for approximately 900,000 hospitalizations annually, or two hospitalizations every minute.

Traditionally, patients with heart failure are encouraged to take their weights on a daily basis, as a sudden increase in weight can indicate an increase in fluid build-up. However, many find it difficult to adhere to tracking weight and taking medications on a daily basis.

Management of Heart Failure Transformed

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) presents an opportunity to support patients in the comfort of their own home as they manage their heart failure. Instead of placing the burden on patients and their caregivers to take and record daily weights, a smart RPM solution allows providers to proactively reach out to heart failure patients and adjust medications as needed to decrease preventable heart failure admissions. This remote patient monitoring infrastructure extends your ability to support patients outside of the clinic, and reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and mortality.

RPM transforms a scattered paper trail of weights into a digital visualization of weight trends. This can paint a more detailed picture of a patient’s heart failure status, and indicate the acute and long-term settings. Through digital weight recordings, patients can be encouraged to improve their adherence with reminders if they forget to take their weights to thereby empower them to improve their health self-awareness. Furthermore, providers and healthcare systems alike, can take advantage of workflows and systems to assess for acute heart failure exacerbations and adjustments to long-term heart failure regimens.

Clinical Studies Show Benefits of RPM on Heart Failure

Studies published by the National Institute of Health (NIH) demonstrate an improvement in heart failure management, including reductions in emergency department visits, hospitalizations, readmissions, and mortality.

A report, “Remote Monitoring of Patients With Heart Failure: An Overview of 19 Systematic Reviews demonstrating reduction in rehospitalization and mortality, concluded that “telemonitoring and home telehealth appear generally effective in reducing heart failure rehospitalization and mortality.”

Additionally, a systemic review and meta-analysis indicate that home telemonitoring also “helped to lower the number of hospitalizations and the use of other health services”.

Learn More About RPM

Optimize Health’s RPM system is easy to use, is designed to support improved clinical outcomes, and can be highly profitable with minimal upfront risk. To learn more, simply request a demo and find out how Optimize Health can help you establish a successful RPM program.