Dublin healthcare company patientMpower says that its digital home monitoring programme means that 50 patients with Covid-19 have been released from hospital and can be monitored at home.
The company, based in the Digital Hub, says that home monitoring has been set up in most major hospitals, and allows patients with less severe symptoms to be discharged, going into self-isolation but with the safety net provided by the monitoring system.
“This is crucial for freeing hospital beds and resources for those with more severe disease, particularly as the anticipated surge in cases approaches,” the company added.
Chief executive Eamonn Costello (pictured) said: "We are an experienced provider of home monitoring systems for lung disease, so when the first coronavirus cases were reported in Ireland we put all of our resources behind developing technology to help our healthcare staff cope with this crisis.
“With the support of the HSE, and with rapid uptake by hospitals, this technology has already helped save hundreds of hospital beds for those that need them most.”
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The system uses an app that must be prescribed by a healthcare professional. It measures a patient’s vital signs, including oxygen saturation — a marker of how well a patient’s lungs are working.
Patient information is immediately available for healthcare staff to view via a secure portal in the hospital. If all the signals are good, the patient can continue to recover at home. However, if there are signs that the patient may not be recovering as anticipated they can be brought back into hospital quickly for treatment.
HSE head of digital transformation Martin Curley added: "Technology has a massive role to play in this crisis. With the use of home monitoring technology for Covid-19, we can save our hospital resources for patients who need them most, but quickly move patients back to hospital if they begin to show more severe symptoms while in self-isolation at home.”
Founded in 2015, PatientMpower won c.$300,000 in the IPF Catalyst Challenge in 2018, one of the largest healthcare competitions in the US.
