Health boards in Scotland are set to adopt an early warning system that advises people with covid-19 when they are about to deteriorate and need to go to hospital.

Most people with covid-19 are able to manage at home, but some at-risk groups deteriorate quickly with few symptoms, and can delay seeking medical advice.

Telemonitoring, where people record their symptoms by app or phone, can allow clinicians to identify those whose oxygen levels are dropping and bring them into hospital quickly for treatment.

A model already been used in four health boards and set to be introduced in at least four others, can save lives and take pressure off hospitals, a new study has found.  

The research concludes: “In periods where there is high community transmission of covid-19, health services run the risk of being overwhelmed. It is sensible, therefore, that people with milder illness are managed at home.

“However, given that some in this group will deteriorate, it is important that deterioration is detected early enough to allow effective hospital treatment. Self-monitoring of symptoms and SpO₂ provides a means of achieving this.”

All 116 participants in NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Highland – who were elderly, had underlying medical conditions, were from specific ethnic minority backgrounds, and/or had a high body mass index – found supported self-monitoring to be reassuring, and most found it easy to undertake.

Of 71 who submitted data, 35 received 151 alerts to seek medical help during their two-week observation.

A total of 19 were admitted to hospital following automatic warnings – but the study team found some patients ‘worryingly’ ignored urgent calls to go into hospital.

More needs to be done to emphasise the importance of early investigation and treatment of oxygen starvation as a result of covid, they say.

Clinicians were also largely convinced of telemonitoring’s benefits to patients’ health, with the service now available to all NHS boards across Scotland,

Brian McKinstry, Professor Emeritus Primary Care eHealth at the University of Edinburgh, said:

“This research confirms the findings of several other similar international studies that telemonitoring has the potential to reassure patients that they can safely self-monitor at home and that deterioration in their condition will be detected early, and can be treated in a timely way.”

 

Read more: New prostate cancer treatment expanded; Citizens should be the curators of their health data; Insight: Harnessing the pandemic innovation surge.

 

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