“Digital surveillance and compliance will significantly reduce readmissions and mortality”
“Digital surveillance and compliance will significantly reduce readmissions and mortality”
“Following patients’ doctor’s directions on medication, diet, and exercise/physiotherapy after discharge and closely monitoring their activities would greatly reduce readmission rates and mortality,” said Dr. Ranjan Shetty, Head of the Department of Cardiology at Manipal Hospitals.
“Close monitoring is critical to the speedy recovery of patients who have undergone high-risk surgery. Some readmissions can result in fatalities, while close surveillance is as important as medication and can reduce mortality,” he said. To make post-surgical monitoring convenient for patients, Manipal Hospitals on Thursday formed a strategic partnership with healthcare management solution provider ConnectedLife to introduce Fitbit, a smart wearable powered by Google Cloud to track patients’ progress post-surgery high-risk monitor and procedures. The wearable would remotely track heart rate, oxygen saturation, and activity metrics (sleep quality and steps taken). The device would streamline patient care by providing reminders to take medication, physical therapy or exercise, and also trigger alerts when there are significant deviations from the normal physiological parameters of the monitored patients, the company claimed. Manipal Hospitals is currently conducting a pilot project using the device on 30 of its orthopedic and cardiology patients. Over a three month period, the physiological parameters and other details of these patients would be monitored, recorded and made available on the clinicians’ dashboards at the hospital for easy observation and recovery analysis. “Restoring mobility after surgery is extremely important for both orthopedic and cardiac patients. The wearable is expected to ensure better compliance, pain control, motivation and speedy recovery for patients,” said Dr. Hemant K. Kalyan, HOD & Consultant – Orthopedic Surgery, Sports Medicine, Manipal Hospitals. Early data showed patients in the program showed improved adherence to medication and exercise regimens, the hospital said. “Through his partnership, we expect seamless postoperative care as wearable technology will help us monitor certain critical parameters of patients who have undergone total knee arthroplasty, angioplasty, cardiac bypass and other high-risk surgeries,” said Dr Sudarshal Ballal, Chairman of the Manipal Hospitals. Stressing the importance of integrating AI and human expertise in healthcare, Dilip Jose, MD and CEO of Manipal Hospitals said that the hospital would eventually have a large pool of data collected through the wearables, which would eventually provide a great learning experience Data mining and analytical capabilities.
