Page 26 - HME Business, August/September 2018

Seeing The Bigger Picture
agencies,” says Jim Clement, general manager of North America at GCE Group. For other devices, “since compliance is
not mandated at this time, the remote monitoring capability has generally focused on improved fleet management and, more recently, to monitor utilization to prevent readmissions.”
In other words, remote monitoring started from the perspective of tracking equip- ment, but expanding capabilities are rapidly shifting the focus to monitoring people.
“This trend is just starting to take root
in the home oxygen therapy market with
the introduction of connected POCs such
as the Invacare Platinum Mobile Oxygen Concentrator. The ability to monitor and troubleshoot equipment remotely can help to reduce a provider’s cost-to-serve by elimi- nating costly truck rolls,” says Nick Jacobs, senior director, respiratory, at Invacare Corp.
Invacare’s Platinum Mobile Oxygen Concentrator with connectivity, launched at Medtrade late last year, features the Piccolo O2 app that lets users view the battery time remaining on their POC as well as get infor- mation and support from their phone screens. Providers can access a dedicated portal that shares information from an integrated system, providing usage and performance data.
“Remote monitoring allows the provider and clinician to get a clearer picture on how or if the patient is actually using their device. This gives the patient’s support network the ability to intervene if there is an issue related to non-use. ... Remote monitoring also provides data to make sure that the patient has the right device for their condition and lifestyle,” says GCE Group’s Jim Clement.
GCE Healthcare’s Clarity, introduced in February, is a secure online platform that allows providers to remotely monitor GCE’s Zen-O POCs from any Internet-enabled device. The system uses the cellular network and GPS to transmit data on everything from oxygen flow and purity to device location
and battery life. GCE has plans to roll out additional features that will give clinicians the ability to remotely gather clinical patient data and also enable its smaller Zen-O lite portable oxygen concentrator on the Clarity platform.
It’s About Compliance
With the new access to information, clini- cians can monitor patient equipment not only for the equipment function, but for patient function and compliance.
“While the benefits of long-term oxygen therapy are well understood, compliance has been difficult to monitor. The new connected POCs give providers access to a variety of information on equipment usage and perfor- mance, including run time. Providers that have more fully embraced the capabilities of remote monitoring outside of oxygen therapy can, with the patient’s consent, share the patient’s compliance information with referral sources, who can then adjust the patient’s care plan accordingly,” Jacobs says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that non- adherence to prescriptions causes 30 to 50 percent of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year in this country, across conditions.
Do the math: COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death worldwide, with an overall prevalence rate between 4 percent and 10 percent of the population, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and COPD is believed to be widely underdiag- nosed. NIH says the prevalence of COPD is increasing and it is estimated that by 2020, COPD will be the third leading cause of death worldwide. COPD is one of the main patient groups using long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). Use of 15 hours per day is widely accepted, but adherence to LTOT ranges between just 45 percent and 70 percent.
Advancements in monitoring let DMEs add a level of service for customers, but it takes careful management to make a profit, and even then it may be tight.
“Competitive bidding has minimized the profitability of oxygen. While some are able to be profitable, I would say it’s more of a retention tool to ensure referrals for other more sustainable products come to fruition,” says Elliott Campbell, senior vice president of Trace Medical.
“With reduced reimbursement, many providers have recognized that it is extremely difficult to provide exceptional service and be profitable with the traditional delivery model,” says Jacobs. “As a result, there has been a significant shift toward
non-delivery methods, especially portable oxygen concentrators.”
Translation: Baby Boomers are much more comfortable with technology than previous generations of senior citizens, so they are much more likely to ask for things like access to their health data through web portals and phone apps. While nobody yet offers a true wearable monitor, some manufacturers are working to create interfaces with devices like the FitBit and iWatch.
“It’s still very early when it comes to remote monitoring and oxygen therapy. ... Going forward, I’d expect the capabilities of remote monitoring to expand dramatically for everyone involved in caring for someone with COPD,” Jacobs says.
LTOT Technologies Joined at the Hip
The growth of RPM has gone hand in hand with the growth of the POC market: non- stationary patients call for non-stationary monitoring.
“In recent years POC manufacturers have adopted both cellular data downloads and more recently Bluetooth and smartphones as vehicles for the data retrieval,” Clement says. “As far as new capabilities on the horizon are concerned, there will be additional devices that can be networked into the POC. The GCE Zen-O as an example has bluetooth capability to will soon allow other devices, such as an oximeter, to be connected.”
Advances in remote patient monitoring include new peripherals; real-time audio and video for “face-to-face” interaction between clinicians and patients; wireless communication systems that sort the data collected to put it into the context of a patient’s condition; portable and ambula- tory monitors; web-based access to patient records; systems that transfer data to an electronic medical record (EMR); and full- service outsourcing that includes a clinician to evaluate data and send a report to the attending physician, according to market researchers at Kalorama Information.
“With technology advancement – and as patients have become more accepting of technology – remote monitoring of equip- ment has evolved as a means of not only helping to reduce costs, but also helping to improve the quality of care,” Jacobs says.
Patients and physicians aren’t the only ones gathering data from the new tools. As RMP becomes more ubiquitous, the Big Data collected will help guide future refinements and even treatments. n
Holly Wagner is a freelance writer covering a variety of industries, including healthcare.
“Early intervention
should help keep
the patient from
readmitting.
Remote
monitoring also
provides data to
make sure that the
patient has the right device for their condition and lifestyle.”
— Jim Clement, GCE Group
26 HMEBusiness | August/September 2018 | hme-business.com
Management Solutions | Technology | Products
Special FocuS on portable oxygen
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