Sacramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health is introducing a remote COPD monitoring program for patients with the chronic lung disease.
The project enrolls up to 12 patients at a time, outfitting them with pulse oximeters, which upload data to their EHRs that is tracked on a daily basis by respiratory therapists. Concerning symptoms in the data will trigger an alarm in the system.
"When we developed this program, we wanted to create something that integrated into our electronic health record program," said Brooks Kuhn, MD, assistant professor of medicine and co-director of the Comprehensive COPD Clinic, in a Dec. 14 health system news release. "We also wanted to make sure there was a strong robust clinical backbone behind it and the data we collected was actionable. Combining the data from the pulse oximeter with the patient's symptom data provided us some context."
The program continues a trend of hospitals and health systems monitoring patients with chronic diseases in the home rather than expensive acute-care settings. An estimated 16 million Americans have COPD, though many more likely remain undiagnosed, according to the CDC.