This month we’ve been focusing some of our editorial coverage on remote patient monitoring. You may have also seen our podcast asking the question of whether RPM is Overrated or our ever expanding list of RPM companies. There’s a lot happening in the remote patient monitoring space. Why is this the case?
I think the answer to this question was encapsulated well by Quentin Blackford, CEO at iRhythm Technologies when he said “The pandemic exacerbated healthcare access issues for millions, and the medtech industry will prioritize solutions to get care to those who need it most. COVID-19 accelerated the shift toward remote care, and the coming months will likely see increased acceptance of the evolving technology across a variety of stakeholders. Expect remote patient monitoring to expand as patients and providers rely more heavily on actionable insights from uninterrupted health data. Additionally, companies will continue to work toward improving accessibility for at-risk patient populations.”
In many ways, this shift reminds me of EHR adoption. Prior to the EHR stimulus money and HITECH/Meaningful Use, EHR adoption was already seeing some success. Most healthcare organizations were considering adopting an EHR. Then, the $36 billion of stimulus was a catalyst to take that adoption to the next level. The same is true with RPM. It was seeing some good success and results prior to COVID, but COVID-19 acted as a stimulus to drive its adoption forward much faster. I don’t think the COVID catalyst will be quite as strong as the $36 billion, but it feels very similar.
What I think is most interesting about the RPM space is how quickly it’s maturing and filling in needed gaps of care. Tom Stanis, Co-Founder & CEO at Story Health, described an example use case, “There is significant value – and growing – in remote monitoring for those facing a serious health condition, like heart failure patients. This kind of event is a life-changing circumstance – one patients struggle to deal with alone and one that doesn’t wait for their visits to the clinic. With smart medical and monitoring devices, we can fill the data gap between heart failure patients, for example, managing conditions in the home and specialists for the most personalized, timely at-home treatment and care plan possible. This use case for extending reach and clinician capacity is extremely important, as access to critical care continues to drop for the 6M Americans with heart failure and 33K practicing U.S. cardiologists.”
While it’s great to see these use cases and potential use cases, it’s also hard for me to not follow the money on this. Justin Norden, MD, Partner at GSR Ventures, describes the financial challenge we still face with RPM today. “While many believe remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions have the potential to improve care outcomes and seriously reduce costs, to date they have yet to make an impact on our healthcare system. Too many companies are focused on capturing fee-for-service (FFS) billing revenue, rather than focus on the true opportunity in value-based care and improving clinical outcomes. To drive RPM growth companies must publish their results and prove to all parties that a complete RPM solution can take better care of patients in their homes.”
This is the reality for many healthcare organizations. They’re too addicted to the fee-for-service care they’ve always provided and many startups follow that path. Plus, we need more of the data to prove it’s actually improving care. It’s hard to change mindsets, but even harder without the right data. However, Deepak Gaddipati, Founder and Chief Technology Officer at VirtuSense, suggests that RPM is essential to this shift and shares why this is a critical need for healthcare organizations to consider for many reasons beyond the financial ones:
“Remote Patient Monitoring is an essential component to shift patient care from reactive to proactive. Leveraging emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence can provide non-intrusive, life-saving measures while simultaneously removing the strain and burden care teams face monitoring patients 24/7. In a time where staffing shortages are at unprecedented levels, the ability to remotely monitor patients is a critical need to improve patient safety, reduce burnout, and safeguard the financial stability of healthcare organizations.”
This prompts a good question. Will staffing shortages force healthcare organizations to consider RPM technologies out of necessity? I don’t think staffing issues are going to get any better. RPM is a solution that can help with staffing challenges. If you don’t use technology like RPM to help alleviate staff burnout, your staffing challenges are likely to get worse. That’s bad for patients and business.
The good news here is that RPM has come a long way. Is there still a lot more to be discovered? Yes. We’re just at the start of the RPM journey. RPM is going to get much better. However, many RPM programs have become deeply integrated into existing EHR workflows which is a huge improvement over initial iterations.
Richard Brooks, President, Healthcare at Connect America, described it this way “Many providers are surprised to know that a successful RPM program can be easy to implement and seamless to integrate. AI-assisted RPM can be integrated with an EHR without disruption to existing clinical workflows. Internet-connected smart devices come ready to go out of the box and are easy for patients to use. A virtual health assistant can help support patients with education and reminders, increasing adherence by as much as 36%. With a turn-key solution, practices receive support with patient onboarding, clinical monitoring, and billing so providers can focus on providing care to patients.”
Change is always hard, but integrated RPM programs with devices that automatically connect are here. Those two things alone have made efforts to remotely monitor patients dramatically better and easier to implement. Healthcare organizations don’t have to roll out their own IT help desk to support RPM efforts. Clinicians don’t have to log in to separate systems. The workflows aren’t perfect, but they’re dramatically better.
Tomorrow, we’re going to continue our look at RPM as we share some of the things that are still holding it back. We’ll share some of the challenges that RPM faces and what can be done to address those challenges.
What has been your experience with RPM? Has your organization embraced it? What challenges do you still face? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
