Telemedicine-assisted home support for patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: preliminary results after nine-month follow-up.
Eighteen well motivated patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who had had at least four hospitalizations during the previous two years, were included in a home-based telemedicine study. A visiting nurse was equipped with a case containing a laptop computer and a number of medical devices, including an electrocardiogram recorder, spirometer, oximeter and blood pressure monitor. It also contained a videoconference camera, for realtime audiovisual connection with the hospital using the patient's TV set. A single ISDN line (128 kbit/s) was installed in each house before the study began. After nine months, there was a decrease in hospitalizations, emergency department visits and use of health services. The patient's disease knowledge and self-management also improved. It seems likely that adopting telemedicine in everyday clinical practice could substantially improve the care of chronically ill patients.
Vontetsianos
Th
T
Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece. tvonte@b-online.gr
Giovas
P
P
Katsaras
Th
T
Rigopoulou
A
A
Mpirmpa
G
G
Giaboudakis
P
P
Koyrelea
S
S
Kontopyrgias
G
G
Tsoulkas
B
B
D004630:Emergencies; D006699:Home Care Services; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000628:therapy*; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*