Flip phones, pendant alarms, Alexa: How Best Buy does remote patient monitoring

Best Buy Health provides remote patient monitoring via flip phones, pendant alarms and a clinical command center staffed by nurses, Technology Magazine reported.

Subsidiary Current Health collects patients' data from remote monitoring devices and shares it with the patients' providers, who can adjust treatment plans in real time, according to the April 5 story.

"For example, if your blood pressure goes up, a nurse from the clinical command center will call the patient to discuss the change," Jean Olive, chief technology officer at Best Buy Health, told the news outlet. "Sometimes the reasoning can be easily explained by a patient: 'I know. Yesterday, I went out to eat and had a bunch of salty appetizers,' and other times it might be something we need to further investigate."

The company's Lively brand offers flip phones, pendant alarms, fall detection and emergency response buttons. Patients can access live help through smart devices like Amazon Alexa. The patients' loved ones can track them through the Lively app and are notified of any emergencies.

Best Buy Health has recently partnered with such health systems as Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health, New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System and Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger on remote patient monitoring.

"Our health systems are under such tremendous financial pressure at the moment," Kevin McLellan, principal at consulting firm PwC Strategy&, told the magazine. "Driving this transformation in care at home, well, it's hard to understate the importance of it."

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