Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Telemedicine-assisted home support for patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Preliminary results after nine-month follow-up

2005; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 11; Issue: 1_suppl Linguagem: Inglês

10.1258/1357633054461697

1758-1109

Th Vontetsianos, Periklis Giovas, Th. Katsaras, Anna Rigopoulou, Georgia Mpirmpa, P Giaboudakis, S Koyrelea, Georgios Kontopyrgias, B Tsoulkas,

Mobile Health and mHealth Applications

Eighteen well motivated patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who had had at least four hospitalizations during the previous two years, were included in a home-based telemedicine study. A visiting nurse was equipped with a case containing a laptop computer and a number of medical devices, including an electrocardiogram recorder, spirometer, oximeter and blood pressure monitor. It also contained a videoconference camera, for realtime audiovisual connection with the hospital using the patient's TV set. A single ISDN line (128 kbit/s) was installed in each house before the study began. After nine months, there was a decrease in hospitalizations, emergency department visits and use of health services. The patient's disease knowledge and self-management also improved. It seems likely that adopting telemedicine in everyday clinical practice could substantially improve the care of chronically ill patients.