Vulnerable heart failure patients in Salford who have seen reduced hospital check-ups during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being monitored remotely, following the introduction of a digital care solution.
Salford Care Organization health care teams are piloting the use of remote monitoring system which make use of smartphone and connected Bluetooth devices. It helps patients to record and self-manage their weight and blood pressure between appointments.
The Norwegian medical tech firm Dignio automatically sends readings of patient tests to clinicians at Salford Royal through a special data platform. Although physical appointments are still required for this group of patients to do physical examinations and blood tests that are now being done less frequently.
The COVID19 pandemic restricts movements, more hygiene between patients, and social distancing so fewer patients need to go to the clinic. With the new system, physical meetings are not required, helping to enhance virtual clinics and be cared for.
Every person taking part in the pilot have access to the Dignio App to record their measurements manually and get a set of good blood pressure monitor and a digital scale. The health care team can review and monitor the data, and thresholds for the alert are set on a personal basis. This means when something does not fall within the acceptable clinical range, clinicians will be alerted.
The platform effectively flags up any signs which indicate their condition is deteriorating between visits.
Consultant Cardiologist and heart failure lead at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Dr. Nehal Hussain, said: One of the major things we look for is patients’ weight-if it increases more than 2 kilos in seven days, there is the possibility for a fluid build u and we need to have a telephone consultation to discuss this.
We can make use of the system to make video consultations. Instead of waiting several weeks to discover this, we can possibly ick this up sooner and provide the right advice. The aim is to avoid hospital admission for our patients.
“Patients don’t want to have to go into hospital and we want to try to care for them in their home and in the community.
“We usually tell people to weigh themselves, so it is not new but we hope there will be a way to get feedback to us so we can show them visually to help us engage with more patients. A lot of patients don’t do this, so having an app that does will help us engage with patients.”
If a patient with heart failure becomes sick, it can lead to the admission of such patients for up to 11 days. This costs around £4,000 for each stay. Identifying a problem before it occurs simply means hospital admissions can be reduced.
Originally developed in Norway, the Dignio app and the remote care solution has been widely used across the country for monitoring patients with a variety of long-term health conditions.
Dr. Meetali Kakad, global chief medical officer at Dignio said: “We focus on empowering patients with more knowledge about their disease and tools for self-management in order to slow disease progression and to reduce preventable admissions. Municipalities in Norway have successfully been using our solutions to follow patients with hypertension and heart failure in the community for almost eight years. We are very excited to be working with the heart failure team at Salford Care.”
