A user-friendly home monitoring system is installed at the patient’s home, which includes several medical monitoring devices and a home-based communication unit.
This integrated and attuned system enables the seamless transmission of medical data, via a telephone line, to SHL’s medical monitoring center, where it is added to the patient’s electronic record and stored in the central SHL database. The typical process is to instruct the patient to transmit each morning his medical data to SHL, which is a relatively simple process, requiring only a few minutes per day.
The data accumulated in the subscriber’s medical records is uploaded to a secured website, and is available at any time to both the patient and the authorized physician. Should the transmitted data exceed a predetermined threshold the system immediately triggers an alert.
The on duty staff at SHL’s medical call center immediately responds to this alert, and applies computer-aided protocols to instruct the patient step-by-step on how to stabilize his condition. Apart from monitoring medical readings the SHL program also incorporates the equally important factors of patient instruction, education, and compliance with the treatment guidelines. The medical monitoring center staff contacts the patient periodically, irrespective of any medical need, in order to check up on his overall medical condition, and to strengthen the patient’s commitment to comply with the treatment guidelines and the program.
In addition SHL patients receive, on a regular basis, educational materials on a variety of topics, covering the characteristics of the illness, related drug treatment and recommended diet and nutrition programs.
Since SHL implemented this program in the year of 2000, it has proven to considerably improve a patient’s quality of life, while significantly reducing the annual number of days a patient needs to be hospitalized. Available scientific data indicates a drop in 66% of the annual hospitalization time (this data was published by SHL in the International Journal of Cardiology in 2004, following a study conducted by Professor Arie Roth).
German health insurance companies began using SHL Telemedicine systems in 2005, as part of their health care offering to their members. Within a period of less than two years, thousands of Telemedicine systems were installed across Germany, and the sign up rate for this program, from patients with congestive heart failure, continues to increase steadily.
SHL’s Telemedicine system offers a multitude of advantages for patients suffering from congestive heart failure:
• System availability and user-friendliness
• Close monitoring of patients enables rapid identification of unstable conditions and allows immediate treatment, which may reduce the number of hospitalizations.
• Transmitted data is immediately received and recorded in the medical monitoring center system.
• The medical data, recorded by the SHL system, is readily accessible to both physicians and patients, and is an important complementary component in the medical framework.