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• Heart failure (CHF)
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• Diabetes
• Thrombosis/coagulation

Heart failure (CHF)

 

CHF has become a widespread disease, which is most often diagnosed in elderly people.

• 1 % of persons aged 50 are diagnosed with CHF,
• 5 % of persons aged more than 70 are diagnosed with CHF
• 25 % of persons aged 85 and older are diagnosed with CHF

 

Most common co-morbidities for CHF patients are: Hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease.

The incidence of hospital admissions for heart failure patients is increasing rapidly and readmission occur within months for more than 30 % of the heart failure patients.

 

The clinical outcomes from managing CHF patients by the use of telehealth is probably the most well documented of all telehealth programs. Many studies throughout the time has created a wide selection of evidence by collecting vital signs from devices like weight scales, blood pressure, pulse and ECG monitors, etc. in combination with symptomatic questions.

By monitoring patients at home, the clinical staff can follow the development of the disease and at the same time this method helps the patients to get a better knowledge of their disease by knowing and reacting on their symptoms.

 

Symptoms for a CHF patient are among others:

• Shortness of breath (especially when performing physical activities or when lying down)
• Fatigue and weakness
• Coughing
• Accumulation of fluids in the body (especially feet/ankles)

 

The RTX3370/RTX3371 is designed to collect vital signs from devices like weight scales, blood pressure monitors and ECG monitors. Even a slight change in weight can indicate accumulation of fluids in the body and can result in hospitalization if not treated properly and within a short period of time. A very high blood pressure can indicate that the heart is working too hard and this will eventually lead to heart failure. High blood pressure and heart failure are often related and blood pressure can therefore be an important vital sign to monitor in CHF patients. Saturation is an important indicator for the condition of the circulation and  pulse oximetry should therefore also be monitored.

 

In addition to the vital signs monitoring, the RTX3370/RTX3371 can ask patients optional symptomatic questions to support the clinical staff when evaluating the patient.

Questions can also be asked without monitoring vital signs. They can e.g. be posed daily at a specific time of the day.

Vital signs are most often monitored over a longer period of time and often in the home of the CHF patient. By monitoring a patient’s vital signs in combination with symptomatic questions, many occasions of sudden worsening in the disease can be detected early. This will lead to fewer hospital admissions and ensure a better health and quality of life for the CHF patients.

 

The RTX3370/RTX3371 can be configured with specific devices and questions. For CHF this could be a specific weight scale, a specific blood pressure monitor and questions to be posed every day after vital sign data from both these devices are received. The number, order and type (simple yes/no or multiple choice) of questions are predefined. Questions and the progress of a ‘question tree’ are defined in scripts that can be downloaded to the RTX3370/RTX3371 remotely, if there is a need for updating or renewing the questions.

Since all content (external devices, questions, reminders, etc) of the RTX3370/RTX3371 is configurable it can easily be configured to be used for other chronic disease groups or even combinations of disease groups. The flexibility of the RTX3370/RTX3371 is great.

 

The RTX3370/RTX3371 is designed to be very simple to use as CHF patients are often elderly people. With this in mind it has only a few large buttons, a large display screen and a speaker for additional vocal support. Use of the RTX3370/RTX3371 does not require knowledge or interest in technology. All data, vital signs and/or questions/answers are automatically sent to a clinical database by use of a normal residual telephone line (RTX3370) or by GSM/GPRS (RTX3371).

 

 

RTX3370/RTX3371 supported devices for CHF:

• A&D weight scale (Bluetooth)
• A&D weight scale (cable)
• A&D blood pressure monitor (Bluetooth)
• A&D blood pressure monitor (cable)
• IEM weight scale (Bluetooth)
• IEM, stabilograph, blood pressure monitor (Bluetooth)
• THT weight scale (Bluetooth)
• THT weight scale (cable)
• Vitaphone ECG monitor
• Corscience ECG monitor
• Nonin Onyx II oximeter (Bluetooth)

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