Remote Monitoring: Innovation Drives Post-Op Recovery

Finding solutions to help patients attain a better experience after surgery is an ongoing, moving target for healthcare providers. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is one option gaining traction with both providers and patients to improve the flow of information while potentially reducing the length of a hospital stay.
 
RPM uses wearable devices and digital technology to continuously monitor physiological data such as heart rate, temperature, and movement to provide critical information for providers and researchers to monitor patients outside a hospital or at an outpatient surgery facility.
 
The solution starts with the right wearable device – one that is designed to collect the physiological indicators sought and matched to the ambulatory routine of the patient. Providing accessible technology to ensure wearability, accuracy, and connectivity that also ensures continuous data streams can be problematic without proven, medical-grade devices and data analysis solutions.
 
The device must be small and comfortable enough that patients will wear it without issue while providing a continuous data stream to the cloud. Vital statistics fed into a biometric data platform is processed for analysis then presented to a provider in an easily accessible dashboard. It seems straightforward, and it can be. Patients can recover at home, reducing the inpatient time, which ultimately improves cost savings for hospital systems while providing continuity of care. 
 
Access to the data enables physicians to assess and treat conditions earlier in the recovery cycle, which can result in better outcomes for patients. One example is a study in which researchers use actigraphy devices and a Biometrics Data Platform to monitor post procedure recovery. Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) occurs in 1-2 percent of primary and 4 percent of revision arthroplasties which can significantly impact an aging population that’s receiving implanted plastic joints that are expected to last longer. Improved data collection and analysis for diagnosing PJI, especially in chronic infections caused by low-virulence pathogens, can lead to better outcomes without extended use of post-surgical antibiotics. 
 
Patients using post-op RPM are less likely to be readmitted, less likely to report pain after a week, and more appropriately medicated because potential errors are detected earlier in the recovery period. A recent study at McMaster University showed patients using Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) after surgery, were: less likely to be readmitted (5.3 percent), less likely to report pain seven days after surgery (13.9 percent), and safer because medication errors were detected early on (24.2 percent). 

RPM Technology in Action

RPM technology helped facilitate a return to action for a Case Western Reserve University athlete returning from a lower lumbar injury. The care team used wearable sensors to monitor her musculoskeletal and cardiovascular physiological adaptation. The data on her internal workload along with self-reporting her rate of perceived exertion (RPE) informed her optimal return to on-field action. University researchers also examined specific wearables from anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and hip arthroscopic procedures to determine changes in the muscle oxygen saturation level as an athlete moves back into a normal routine to see changes as the atrophied muscle regains strength compared to the contralateral leg. Using wearable technology provided tissue physiology insights to evaluate how the ligament responded to rehabilitation so physicians and trainers could determine when the athlete could be cleared to return to activity without unduly compromising musculoskeletal health. 
 
With RPM technology, innovation is always on the horizon, making both patients and providers the ultimate beneficiaries. Remote wearable devices capable of accurate, continuous data monitoring and collection feed an omni-channel biometric platform that creates a breadth of opportunities for analysis. Through the evolution of biometric data services, orthopedic surgeons can work with exercise physiologists, physical therapists, and biomedical engineers to incorporate the insights derived from AI based on quality, robust edge solutions. This impacts every aspect of the orthopedic care cycle to offer providers the tools to better assess both pre- and post-surgical patients. 
 

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Jiang Li is founder and CEO of Vivalink, a leading provider of connected healthcare solutions for patient monitoring and telemedicine. HIs passion and extensive experience in bringing innovative technology and products into the marketplace positions him as an innovative thought leader in virtual healthcare. An executive with more than two decades of experience across multiple disciplines, including global healthcare IT, medical device, cloud software, and sensor and IoT industries, he is a regular contributor to leading edge media including Forbes and an established industry speaker. Prior to joining Vivalink, he was responsible for new product and technology development as the VP of engineering at Kovio and Thinfilm Electronics, leading printed electronics companies. Prior to that, he worked at AMD and the joint venture between AMD/Fujitsu, Spansion. As the vice president of product engineering at Spansion, Li managed the major new product launches at Spansion. Li holds 22 US patents, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.