| | November 20158UTLOOK Healthcare Tech OpinionIn myImagine a patient­80-plus years old, a grandmother five times over, suffering from multiple chronic illnesses, including high blood pressure­who receives health care at home. Now imagine that remote monitoring devices placed in her home are transmitting valuable medical data about her health status, in real time, to the clinical team in charge of her care. Imagine, finally, that these digital dispatches about her health issues, from pain management to adherence to medication regimens, reaches her physician, her nurse, her therapist and her social worker on a minute-by-minute-basis.Science fiction? Hardly. In fact, the ability to do this is already here. The technology exists, proven across several industries. The future­using IT to improve care and enable higher acuity care in the comfort and safety of home­has arrived. We just have to use it.The American health care delivery system is far from reaching its goal of decentralizing its legacy model, based in a hospital or physician office or other brick-and-mortar facility, and has not achieved full connectivity for patients. Further complicating matters, Medicare still limits reimbursement for telemedicine services, often setting precedents for other insurers.Such connectivity, especially as the aging of the U.S. population accelerates, creating more geriatric patients, will be essential for care to be coordinated as needed. For now, examples of wireless technology for healthcare at home abound: motion sensors, apps with algorithms and video house calls. Such devices may ask how a patient is feeling, How to Crack the Code on Delivering Telemedicine to Home Health Patients: Eight Key TipsBy Martin Howard, CIO, Amedisys
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