It increasingly becomes common and easy in the United States to use medical devices to evaluate health status at home, then send the data to a private doctor in real time, make a medical consultation through video consultation and make a prescription online. The "fueling" COVID-19 pandemic, the increasing maturity of remote medical monitoring technology, and the improvement of patient concepts have all made the prospect of remote patient monitoring brighter.
At the same time of the COVID-19 outbreak, people's interest in remote patient monitoring has surged. According to the data provided by Atlas Virtual Network Company, the online search volume of the keyword "remote patient monitoring" hit a record high in April, a 525% increase compared with January. A survey conducted in April by Robo Global-a research and consulting company-showed that the number of active users of remote online medical companies had tripled compared with that before the pandemic.
The demand for remote patient monitoring in some of the most famous medical systems in the United States has also increased significantly. Steven Cowen is the president of New York Presbyterian Hospital, one of the largest and most comprehensive medical care systems in the United States. He said that before the pandemic, about 4% of the outpatient services in the hospital were remote patient monitoring. During the pandemic, 85% of outpatient clinics were monitored by remote patient monitoring. Now 95% of psychiatric clinics take the form of remote patient monitoring, and doctors have been used to this way of working.
For the medical industry, remote patient monitoring is not only a new development trend, but also will deeply change and innovate the traditional medical model. Seth Danson, co-founder and chief strategist at GDP Advisors-a consulting firm focused on the healthcare supply chain-said remote patient monitoring has a lot of room to grow in the treatment of traditional chronic diseases. "It saves patients from having to go to the hospital or clinic for some easily diagnosed symptoms. For example, a patient with an upper respiratory tract infection may only need a doctor to prescribe some antibiotics."
With the rapid popularization of remote patient monitoring, doctors have more choices and space in the way of managing patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Currently, 9% of health care spending in U.S. is spent on only 6% of chronic disease patients. Seth Danson said that through remote patient monitoring technology, doctors can monitor and manage patients' medication status in a more timely and convenient manner.
