Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 02, 2012

AT&T and VRI To Offer Managed Remote Telemonitoring Service


You may know someone with asthma, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure or diabetes. But did you know that these chronic diseases add up to nearly 80 percent of physician visits, over 80 percent of hospital inpatient stays, over 90 percent of prescriptions, and over 95 percent of home healthcare visits? And those patients recently hospitalized with one or more of these conditions will most likely need to be readmitted to hospitals later at some point?

A new concept called telemedicine is helping more people with chronic illnesses to remain at home while being safely monitored by clinicians at remote locations through special monitors in their homes, and also preventing them from readmission to hospitals.

AT&T announced today it is entering into this business and that it has signed an agreement with Valued Relationships Inc. (VRI) to deliver its remote patient monitoring solution, to be available in the third quarter of 2012.

What VRI brings to the party in the managed solution is a “nurse-staffed telemonitoring center to monitor patients around the clock for everything ranging from basic vital signs to chronic diseases, following standard of care guidelines established by physicians and healthcare providers,” enabling caregivers to efficiently care for patients outside hospital walls, according to the press release. The best part about these kinds of systems is that they can alert caregivers when intervention is needed.

Remote patient monitoring services are becoming ubiquitous as our population ages. Some of these solutions are touted as ways to “age in place.” More reasons for the growing use of monitoring services? With our aging population, chronic diseases are rising just as the number of healthcare workers is dropping.

"This innovative solution will connect providers to patients for monitoring and intervention,” said Randall Porter, assistant VP, AT&T ForHealth, AT&T Business and Home Solutions, in the press release. “Patients will have peace of mind knowing their biometric data is being monitored for trending analyses, to improve outcomes and help prevent relapses.”

AT&T plans to provide everything from wireless connectivity and sales and marketing support to device delivery and return in this managed solution, according to the press release.




Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli
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