The focus of this report is on clinical-grade remote patient monitoring (RPM). RPM is a digital solution that involves secure transmission of medical data collected on devices, via information and communication technologies, through text, sound, images or other forms needed for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients. Health systems in Europe are facing several challenges, including the growing incidence of chronic diseases and an aging population. Healthcare costs are rising as a result. In addition, healthcare personnel are being over-utilized. The chronic disease burden is creating unprecedented stress on primary care because patients are coming in to clinics more often than in the past. There are also issues with patients’ adherence to treatment protocols and medications. Aging populations are adding to the chronic disease burden and also increasing the strain on emergency care centers and assisted living centers. In addition to these two consumer segments, there is a third end-use segment for RPM, called transitional care patients, which encompasses high-risk patients who are shifting from high-dependency settings such as the intensive care unit (ICU) to wards and to homes. These patients need to be monitored continuously, but a low nurse to patient ratio makes it difficult to continuously monitor them. In order to tackle the burden of these three consumer segments, health systems are looking at radically transforming their healthcare service delivery and approaches by using digital tools such as RPM and other forms of telehealth. RPM is an enabler that supports the shifting of the center of care from the hospital to the home. This reduces the pressure on primary and secondary care units. While the benefits of RPM are clear, certain deterrents slow the uptake of these solutions. These are the lack of clear reimbursement policies and a lack of trust about the accuracy and the privacy of data generated remotely. New-age concepts of Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and Big Data analytics are ushering RPM to new use cases. Companies are focusing on diverse customer segments with basic to robust product offerings that contribute to the RPM value chain. It appears to be the right time for remote patient monitoring companies to explore the potential of this market with diverse digital applications. A mix of business models are being deployed by different vendor types – medical device companies, ICT companies, and pure-play RPM companies. Europe offers a diverse platter of countries based on regulatory and social factors. It is important to understand regional nuances and evaluate the readiness to deploy RPM across the region. Further, in the long run, with health systems moving towards value-based care and embracing emerging concepts such as population health management, care coordination, and patient engagement, RPM is going to play a very important role in a data-driven environment that supports value-based reimbursement.

RPM is and will increasingly become a mainstream healthcare delivery mechanism. It will be essential as health systems in Europe move towards value-based care approaches.

Author: Chandni Mathur