Telemedicine monitors 9,000 COPD patients in their own homes

 

The nationwide telemedical IT systems and the digital infrastructure, which are both crucial for COPD patients being able to carry out measurements in their own homes, are being supplied by Systematic in a joint corporation in 2020. The aim is that 9,000 COPD patients across Denmark receive telemedical services in their own homes. 

Seventeen months ago, the Joint Provision of Telemedicine (FUT – Fælles Udbud af Telemedicin) organisation chose Systematic to supply the telemedical infrastructure in Denmark. In 2020, the infrastructure and other telemedical systems are being supplied, and later this year, Claus Wegener Kofoed, head of IT at Central Denmark Region and co-chair of the steering group in FUT, and Mette Harbo, head of digitalisation at the City of Copenhagen, expect the systems to become operational on a pilot basis.

The systems comprise telemedical heart monitoring for COPD patients who have the telemedical equipment installed in their own homes. The patient can send in their own measurements via a tablet device to their contact at the hospital or in the local municipality. The infrastructure ensures that the patient’s data can be accessed by the designated recipients. 

The solutions are expected to be operational in 2020. The aim is that within the following year, approx. 9,000 COPD patients throughout Denmark will be able to carry out illness-related measurements in their own homes.

Also, telemedical wound assessment will, according to Britta Ravn, head of the Centre for Telemedicine in Central Denmark Region, be transferred to the telemedical infrastructure at the end of 2020. 

Preventing hospital admissions

In Aarhus, an outreach team has been formed which COPD patients can contact and receive treatment from in their own homes if their condition deteriorates. The team comprises specially trained nurses from the emergency team in the City of Aarhus and from the Department of Respiratory Diseases and Allergy at Aarhus University Hospital. The headline for the measure is ‘fast help prevents hospital admissions’, and the aim is to treat patients who experience a deterioration in their illness in order to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

The entire article is available (in Danish) here.