Mudit Dandwate, CEO and Co-founder of Dozee explains why remote patient monitoring is especially important for high-risk oncology patients undergoing hospital treatment
What once seemed impossible in cancer treatment is now a reality thanks to several technological innovations that have led to breakthroughs in the ways we find, visualise, understand, and treat cancer. Advances in digital health have transformed healthcare practice over the last 20 years. The World Health Organization created a classification of digital health interventions and a global strategy on digital health for 2020-2025 to address the importance of developing and integrating appropriate, sustainable, and scalable digital interventions into healthcare systems in response to the exponential growth in this field. Furthermore, according to a recent study, telehealth use across all health specialties was 38 times higher in 2021 than before the pandemic.
While medical advances are continuing to help the world fight cancer, remote patient monitoring is especially important for high-risk oncology patients undergoing hospital treatments, as they are more susceptible to hospital-acquired infections, making it critical to keep them sufficiently isolated in a safe and contained environment. Similarly, because they are undergoing intensive treatments, they require continuous supervision of their vital parameters. With remote patient monitoring technology, healthcare staff can monitor their vital parameters, such as heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, ECG, and temperature, with minimal human intervention. The early warning system integrated into these remote patient monitoring systems can also send alerts to the relevant healthcare providers to enable timely intervention. Such vital information can assist healthcare professionals in making real-time data-backed, quick clinical decisions while monitoring an oncology patient’s vitals while undergoing specific chemotherapy treatments.
These remote patient monitoring systems powered by next-generation AI algorithms, monitor vital parameters of cancer patients and assist healthcare providers in identifying early clinical deterioration in order to provide timely medical intervention. This enables them to provide better care while improving patient safety and nursing staff operational efficiency.
Shows a significant, positive change in cancer patients
Remote patient monitoring has the potential to make a significant difference in the lives of cancer patients. According to one study, remote patient monitoring for cancer patients improves symptom management and quality of life by providing a safe, secure, and real-time system that optimises symptom management. Currently, the burden of recognising symptoms and determining if they’re severe enough to warrant reporting to their care team lies on the patient. In that regard, the effects of remote monitoring of chemotherapy-related side effects on symptom burden, supportive care needs, anxiety, work limitations, and quality of life are remarkable.
In fact, studies have found a significant reduction in psychological and physical symptoms. For the level of distress associated with each symptom, the health-related quality of life is higher, which also reduces anxiety. Remote patient monitoring also gave cancer patients confidence and the ability to engage in their care. On the flip side, most supportive care needs were lower, including physical and daily living needs.
These findings elucidate that remote monitoring of symptoms during chemotherapy for patients with cancer will be vital for future services, particularly with blended models of care delivery arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, they add.
Improved survival rates
Cancer patients often have a tumour and treatment-related complications, resulting in a lower quality of life, a shorter survival time, and a continuous need for emergency department and hospital services. Outpatient oncology care has the potential to leave cancer patients unmonitored for extended periods of time while they are at risk of clinical deterioration. Furthermore, visits to cancer clinics and hospitals risk exposing immunocompromised patients to infectious complications, which is where remote patient monitoring systems for use in cancer treatment come into play, demonstrating benefits in terms of economic and survival outcomes. While advanced devices such as pulmonary artery pressure monitors and implantable loop recorders have demonstrated benefits in cardiovascular care, similar options for oncology do not exist, necessitating the implementation and use of reliable devices for capturing and reporting patient symptoms and physiology.
Furthermore, cancer care has a significant impact on the overall healthcare system due to high rates of emergency department utilisation, hospitalisation, and costly treatments with the potential to reduce the quality of life. As a result, identifying and addressing cancer symptom burden prior to admission is recognised as a critical need, indicating the use of remote patient monitoring systems.
In oncology, while implantable devices are not available, studies have shown that monitoring patient-reported outcomes reduces visits to the emergency department, decreases follow-up costs, and improves overall survival.
The proliferation of smartphones and the miniaturisation of sensor and communication technology have resulted in massive data collection in the consumer and healthcare markets. When combined with subjective patient-related feedback, these same devices can be used to guide patient care or provide prognostic data.
Whereupon powerful analytic tools such as machine learning and artificial intelligence could be used to detect early signs of common complications and provide individual patient health and risk profiles, allowing oncologists to make more informed and personalised treatment recommendations. Remote monitoring of oncology patients’ symptoms using digital technologies may be a cost-effective way of improving outcomes. This typically entails recording patient symptoms and vital signs and then using algorithms to detect changes in these measures.
According to the findings of a recent study, the two-year death rate in the group that was remotely monitored was 47.5 per cent. The study also revealed an improvement in survival and fewer emergency department visits among patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy.
Improves patient experience and provides better supportive care for people with cancer
Patients with cancer often feel isolated and overwhelmed, while at the same time experiencing unfamiliar and unpleasant symptoms related to their disease and its treatment. The support of an expert oncology nurse and skilled navigator is not only vital to the usability and safety of the technology but is also key to improving the patient’s experience with technology. It also illustrates the close collaboration required between clinicians, managers, and patients to identify and address barriers to successful implementation.
Several studies in recent years have provided convincing evidence that remote patient monitoring supports higher relative dose-intensity, significantly lower hospital admissions and emergency department visits, shorter hospital stays, and a lower rate of grade 3 toxicity. Furthermore, remote monitoring was linked to a better overall patient experience and higher levels of supportive care. These findings are especially noteworthy in light of the fact that, for people undergoing cancer treatment, an intervention that reduces hospitalisation and improves outcomes is critical to improved quality of life.
However, this is unlikely to be a simple task, as it will necessitate a coordinated digital approach across each country’s healthcare systems, and a supportive regulatory and legal framework. The significance of multidisciplinary commitment to digital innovations in cancer care is undeniable. It necessitates a combination of patient-reported outcomes, specialist nursing support, and carefully designed technology to significantly improve the experience of patients receiving anti-cancer treatment.
The current Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of dependable connected systems to provide the highest-quality patient care while reducing hospitalisations and clinic visits, particularly in immunocompromised cancer patients. It holds great promise for improving cancer outcomes while lowering costs as sensor technology and accurate symptom prediction.
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