This Is How Telemedicine Is Saving Lives in Rural Areas

As medical professionals, researchers, and government officials look for solutions to improve rural health care, technology continues to provide new ways to connect hard-to-reach patients with physicians. Health care systems are using apps and remote video and audio technologies developed specifically to assist rural health care development.

Here are some of the newest technologies that medical professionals are using in rural areas.

Glooko

Glooko is designed to help doctors who need remote access to their patients with diabetes. The startup works with Medtronic, which makes continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, to help health care professionals gain better access to data from the MiniMed insulin pump (a Medtronic product).

Glooko is a platform that syncs diabetes monitors and other devices that patients use to manage diabetes and other health conditions. When doctors can look at the full spectrum of patients’ health data, including information on exercise, diet, sleep, and medication, along with glucose data, they know more about each patient’s situation and can provide better treatment. Because patients in rural areas can’t easily make regular doctor’s appointments, better self-monitoring can lead to fewer unnecessary hospital visits.

Zio XT Patch

This wearable electrocardiogram patch can eliminate the need for patients to make regular doctor visits for scans that record their heart activity. Patients wear the patch for two weeks, and medical professionals use the clinical app iRhythm to view and analyze the data. With this long-term, accurate data about a patient’s cardiovascular health, physicians can provide better care for remote patients without requiring them to come in to the office.

Wireless Vital Signs Patch Monitors

Similar to the Zio XT Patch, vital signs patch monitors from GE are worn on the wrist and keep track of a patient’s sweat and vital signs. In conjunction with Philips, the Silicon Valley startup Vital Connections also has developed a wireless patch that patients place on their chests. Other remote vital signs monitors use technology that can be placed under the patient’s mattress or even ingested.

One of the most valuable uses of remote vital signs monitors is when patients are transitioning from a hospital stay to their home. As physicians access data from these devices, they can identify problems and make better care recommendations. This kind of technology is especially valuable for rural patients, who often don’t have the time or resources to return for additional follow-up visits at their doctor’s office.

Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP)

This national database, which is available in 49 states, keeps track of electronically prescribed medications and allows doctors to look at a patient’s history of prescriptions. This tool is valuable for doctors who treat opiate addiction, especially in rural areas, where patients may be less aware that prescription drugs can be addictive, just like illegal drugs. When doctors use the PDMP, they can see whether a patient is “doctor shopping” or has multiple prescriptions for opiates from several doctors.

Avera eCare

Developed by a nonprofit health care system in South Dakota, Avera eCare uses video technology to connect rural health providers with specialists who work in urban centers. This system gives rural health care providers support and access to colleagues in order to ease the isolation of working in a rural area. Patients also benefit because their general practitioner can discuss their case with specialists or get a second opinion.

Some of Avera eCare’s other services include remote monitoring of patients who are critically ill and in intensive care, access to hospital-trained pharmacists who can review medication before it is dispensed to patients, and on-demand care services for seniors in long-term care facilities. All services are available around the clock.

21st Century Cures Act

While this is not a specific technology, this Congressional act emphasizes the need to fund telehealth for Medicare. Medical professionals have found that telehealth has been a successful tool in treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Studies also show that telehealth reduces the costs for rural hospitals to treat behavioral health, improves care, and increases the number of patients who receive treatment. As more insurers cover telehealth care and more providers embrace it, more rural patients will benefit from remote access to behavioral health professionals. This connection is urgently needed, as more than half of all counties in the U.S. have no psychiatrist, social worker, or psychologist working there.

AR SAVES

This telehealth program has significantly reduced the number of stroke deaths in Arkansas, which led the nation in that statistic in 2008. Led by the University of Arkansas Center for Distant Health, AR SAVES has helped more than 50 of the state’s 80 hospitals connect to a telemedicine network and stroke assistance physicians. Now, many more patients receive tPA, a de-clotting drug that is the most effective treatment for stroke. Family physicians who work in rural hospitals may feel uncomfortable prescribing the drug, but they are more confident when they have support from specialists.

Since the program was implemented, more than 30 percent of stroke patients in hospitals with AR SAVES have received tPA — previously, that statistic was 1 percent. According to an AR SAVES official, the other 67 percent of patients did not have clinical symptoms and diagnostic markers that would warrant the medication, or otherwise would break the medical protocol.