Data Storyteller

Coming out of the pandemic, much of the conversation about virtual care has tended to focus on synchronous telehealth audio and video visits. This HITEQ Highlights dived deeper into another potentially supportive and valuable strategy in the suite of virtually enabled care. Attendees joined us for a presentation by Clinical Pharmacist and Associate Clinical Professor, Michelle Jacobs, as she described the experience of integrating patient self-monitoring of blood pressure within an office based hypertension management approach. This session included topics such as the evidence base for a self-monitoring blood pressure program, best practices in hypertension management through a self-monitoring program, and technology barriers and challenges to remote blood pressure monitoring.

Health centers are interested in implementing remote patient monitoring (RPM), but are struggling to do so efficiently and completely because of policy, social, and technology barriers combined with staffing and time pressure. To support health centers in the strategic implementation of RPM, the HITEQ Center launched a free learning collaborative -- Health Center Remote Patient Monitoring and Digital Health.  This learning collaborative provided participating health centers a series of four structured virtual learning sessions. 

During the series participants engaged with subject matter experts and their colleagues in peer-to-peer learning and discussion. Topics included: defining the problem that RPM could address; determining the appropriate RPM technology solution; set-up and implementation of RPM technology and processes within an organization; and evaluation, sustainability and scaling RPM to ensure efficiency and value. Participants gained information on key considerations for each of these components of implementation of RPM.

Although health centers have more options than ever to use electronic tools to engage patients in care, selecting those that most effectively further the goal of providing high-quality and efficient patient care is challenging. In this explainer, we consider three types of tools that health centers may invest in: Remote Patient Monitoring, Electronic Patient Engagement, and mHealth Personal Apps. By understanding what they are and how they are implemented, their advantages and disadvantages, and how they align with value-based care and the clinical workflow, health centers can choose the suite of tools that best serve their patient needs.

This Excel-based scoring rubric is intended to be used by health centers to assess electronic patient engagement tools (like automated outreach SMS platforms) to determine which tool is most likely to meet the health center's needs.

Lack of Internet and broadband access prevents some patients from using telehealth and other technology that can support their own health care and getting accurate health care information. In one 2020 study, 42 million Americans lacked adequate access to broadband (high speed internet). As of 2019, about one in five people did not have smartphones, and among low income people nearly one third do not have a smartphone. Rates of computer ownership are not much better. Those patients who do have access to the technology may or may not have the capacity and willingness to use it, depending on past experiences. Some patients aren't comfortable with technology, while others don't trust it or believe that virtual care is sub-par, despite growing evidence of its benefits. This culminates in a clear digital divide that can hinder the ability for patients to fully engage in their care or take advantage of things like remote
patient monitoring, telehealth, mHealth, or patient portal.
This resource provides an overview and some tips for assessing a patient's ability to engage with technology for virtual care, and and interventions that can be used to bridge gaps that are uncovered.