Data supports patients from hospital-to-home

One of the key healthcare conundrums of the 21st century is how to provide medical access to aging populations with multiple chronic conditions at a time when hospital infrastructures are more strained than ever. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) estimates around half of all Australians are suffering from a chronic disease, and around one in five have at least two.

‘Big data’ from the mass population, overlayed by ‘small data’ from the individual, will play an increasingly greater role in the care of this growing patient population. Whether you call it telehealth, telemedicine, telecare, or remote patient monitoring, the intent is the same – to provide at-home patients with near-instant access to caregivers.

These hospital-to-home systems use sophisticated cloud-based technology that can monitor, store and analyse large amounts of complex sets of data. How it works from a patient perspective is simple - patients use networked technology such as scales and blood pressure monitors to take their own health at home and the data is relayed straight to healthcare provider. The software interface alerts medical staff to any change in a patient’s condition and a tablet-based system allows physicians and nurses to video-conference directly with patients.

This approach transforms the current, largely ‘reactive’ model of care so that patients receive care that is focused on preventing adverse health events instead of responding to them. This ultimately helps to improve the quality of life in this high-needs patient group, keeping them out of hospital emergency departments and acute care facilities.

Philips and Arizona-based Banner Health recently released an analysis of the results from a telehealth pilot program designed specifically to improve health outcomes of patients with multiple (five of more) chronic conditions. The Intensive Ambulatory Care (IAC) telehealth pilot program, which is built upon a population management software platform is designed for monitoring and delivering care to the most complex patients at home. For Banner Health, this is the top 5 percent of patients who account for 50 percent of healthcare spend.

By overlaying big data (population data) with small data (individual patient data), the eIAC program enables all stakeholders in the clinical and social management of a patient to identify and address the root causes of the patient’s frequent admissions, creating a cohesive system of care that has helped Banner Health to reduce hospital admissions in this patient group by 45 percent.

As payers (both public and private health insurers) and patients continue to push for better outcomes and more personalised care at lower cost, the connected healthcare transformation will only widen and deepen.

The world is on the cusp of a transformation in which data, devices, and applications will connect patients and caregivers seamlessly and securely. This vision amongst those developing this technology is that it will empower people to maintain their health and manage chronic illness through continuous, unobtrusive monitoring. Improvements in the collection and integration of health data and efficiencies across the care continuum will be taking a significant step towards the ultimate goal of achieving better patient outcomes.