Remote patient monitoring

Under telemonitoring means the remote examination, diagnosis and monitoring of the patient by his treating physician. The patient can continue his normal life. Telemonitoring is still a very young aspect of telemedicine.

Patients are fitted with devices to measure vital signs (eg, weight, blood pressure, heart rate ), which are able to transfer this data directly to a healthcare provider. This may be the GP, a specialist or a telemedical center. In life- threatening situations, an automatic alert the physician be presented may be so caused under circumstances life-saving assistance. In addition, there may be a communication device in the telemonitoring for the patient, such as a specially equipped mobile phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). This unit information and feedback of the doctor may be transferred Telemontoring automatically, such as memories of medication, measurements to be made or information about the current status of the measured values ​​.

Telemonitoring requires special medical, technological, logistical, data security and legal requirements. Areas where telemonitoring is already being used are, for example, the Diabetology, Pulmonology and about the cardiology. Current concepts in this context are also Smart Homecare, s: remote physiological monitoring and patient monitoring. The Biotronik calls her system " Home Monitoring ".

The German Society of Cardiology has established in 2005 for the first time a working group telemonitoring.