CHENNAI: With the COVID-19 pandemic confining us indoors, telemedicine has become the new norm for city-dwellers who can afford it. This transition, however, worked hand-in-hand with the increased use of patient-monitoring devices which can be used at the comfort of home.
Thermometers simplified flu-care in the past. Similarly, newer portable devices have eased management of many ailments that require long-term patient monitoring. The transition to home-bound care with the help of these devices is likely to outlast the pandemic itself, experts opine.
Home-monitoring for COVID:
While patients suffering from illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and chronic respiratory disorders may benefit from this leap, even COVID-19 patients have found such devices useful. Siddant*, who is in his early 30s, tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago. "My doctor advised me to self-isolate instead of getting admitted. I submitted the recommendation to the Corporation and bought a pulse-oximeter as advised," he said.
A pulse-oximeter is a device that measures the amount of oxygen carried in the blood. As Covid damages the lungs and breathing capacity of an individual, a pulse oximeter helps indicate deteriorating health. "I monitored my temperature and oxygen levels every couple of hours and recovered eventually," he said.
Substituting for an ICU:
This device, however, can be used to monitor patients with other respiratory disorders like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, Interstitial Lung Disease, Pneumonia or Lung Cancer. A pulse oximeter can come in handy to check if you need immediate medical attention, said Dr Vijil Rahulan, a Pulmonologist with Gleneagles Global Hospitals. "If someone has a diagnosed health condition, long term monitoring becomes simplified with these patient monitoring devices.
Most Intensive Care Units (ICU) monitor six primary vitals in patients. Temperature, oxygen saturation in blood, heart rate, respiration rate, ECG and Blood Pressure. All these parameters except ECG can now be measured with portable devices at home. Patients with diabetes can measure their blood glucose levels at home as well.
While ICU attention may cost people several thousand rupees, these devices reduce the cost while significantly increasing access to health-care, said Vijai Shankar Raja, the founder of the Chennai-based startup Helyxon - which specialises in Internet of Things (IoT) for patient monitoring systems.
Improving healthcare access long-term:
"The number of doctors and hospital beds should double for India to have a reasonably good healthcare system. We have 15 lakh doctors now, to double that, we need about three decades," said Raja who added that an alternative to this is to drastically improve the technology. When patients can be monitored remotely, the burden on hospitals will reduce.
His company provides an upgraded pulse-oximeter that measures not only the heart rate and blood-oxygen saturation, it also measures temperature and respiration rate, he said. "The device was gradually used by lakh users in a period of five years. We gained over a lakh and a half users during the COVID lockdown alone," said Raja.
He added that this trend is, however, likely to outlast the pandemic itself. "When the 26/11 blasts happened in Mumbai, the event lasted for a couple of hours. But until today security systems in hotels and Metro check people for bombs. Similarly, COVID will bring long-term lifestyle changes. Similarly, it will push the healthcare system to constantly prepare for similar scenarios in the future," he said.