With ever increasing costs of institutional care, restrictions on inpatient care by managed-care organizations, and the desire to "age in place" by individuals with medical conditions requiring regular medical monitoring, tele-medicine is fast becoming a cost-effective and viable option for many Americans.

Building on the success of home diagnostic tests such as those for pregnancy and glucose levels, technologies for managing chronic disabilities are developing rapidly. Home kidney dialysis and cardiac pacemaker monitoring are two of the procedures which previously required in-patient professional care but are increasingly done in the home, with minimal professional supervision.

Tele-medicine began in the 1960's with the use of ordinary telephone and wire communications by physicians who were physically remote from their patients. Since then high-speed data lines, advanced data compression technologies, and computerization of patient records have made tele-medicine a much more powerful clinical tool. As home health care and telecommunication technologies have continued to improve, patients have become increasingly involved in managing their own health care. At the same time, chronic conditions requiring regular monitoring are increasingly common among the growing elderly population. Congestive heart failure is among the most common of these conditions, requiring regular monitoring of blood pressure, weight, and heart rhythm.

How Interactive Healthcare Services Work

Using portable, battery-operated measurement units which operate automatically or with a single push of a button, patients take their vital signs daily. The portable units transmit the data and the time by radio frequency automatically to the home telecommunications "hub". The hub then transmits the data, using ordinary phone lines, to a comprehensive patient database accessible to the health care provider.

eCaregiver employs telecommunications technology for remote monitoring of patients' vital signs; for individuals, families and professional care providers eCaregiver provides 24-hour monitoring and all equipment required on a month-to-month basis thereby eliminating hundreds if not thousands of dollars in upfront costs. “Our aim was to get the technology into the hands of people who need it” said Ethan Johnson Director of eCaregiver Customer Care “It’s not enough to provide advanced technology if only the wealthy can afford it…everyone deserves quality compassionate care.”

In speaking with Mr. Johnson we also discussed specific uses of vitals and tele-health solutions for the at-home care community including how professional caregivers can improve profitability and efficiency with eCaregiver Partner Services. “Our services are designed so that professional care givers can include our vitals monitoring or medication management as a component of their service to increase value and efficiency…. If an individual Caregiver can manage a case load of twenty clients; we estimate they could manage four to six times as many by combining personal visits with tele-medicine solutions. This would be especially useful in rural areas. ”

In our next post we’ll discuss the effectiveness of at-home vitals reporting for Heart Patients, Interactive Healthcare Services and the future of At-Home Health Technologies, then we’ll look at the future of At-home Care Technologies.