Top mHealth trends in 2019 included remote patient monitoring, telehealth reimbursement, substance use disorder care, chronic disease management, and direct-to-consumer mHealth technology.
As 2019 comes to an end, healthcare organizations are reflecting on the trends and stories that most influenced their behaviors in the past year. Based on our most clicked stories in 2019, those trends included remote patient monitoring, telehealth reimbursement and coding, behavioral health/substance use disorder care, chronic disease management strategies, and direct-to-consumer mHealth technologies.
In the following article, mHealthIntelligence.com will break down these trends, as well as the strategies and best practices industry leaders developed in response.
Remote patient monitoring
In 2019, healthcare organizations looked to invest in remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions to transition to value-based care. Many healthcare leaders expected these solutions to support high-risk chronically ill patients whose conditions are considered unstable and at a risk for hospital admission.
Specifically, 88 percent of providers who were surveyed by health IT thought leaders earlier this year had invested or were evaluating investments in RPM technologies.
RPM solutions have been proven to be clinically effective as an early symptom management tool for chronically ill patients, who represented about 45 percent of the US population according to the survey. These solutions allowed risk-bearing organizations to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions to help control healthcare costs, improve care quality, and increase access to care for patients in underserved areas.
In addition, these solutions helped manage value-based risk associated with large patient populations with chronic conditions.
“The ability of the device to simultaneously record multiple variables such as heart rate and accelerometer data allowed us to more accurately determine the patient’s state, whether he/ she is active, sedentary, asleep, or not currently using the device,” the researchers reported.
Because remote patient monitoring is becoming more widespread, more healthcare organizations are implementing RPM into their health systems. Recently, Humana announced a partnership with Philips Health to launch a remote member monitoring pilot for certain Medicare Advantage members with severe congestive heart failure (CHF).
“Our goal is to continue to find ways to help our Medicare Advantage members stay longer and safer in their homes,” Susan Diamond, president of Humana’s Home Business segment, said in a press release.
