Empowering clinicians, enhancing patient care: The future of healthcare with intelligent patient monitoring

Staffing shortages, inefficient workflows and rising patient acuity are not new challenges in healthcare. But with each passing day, they become more pressing for providers.^1,2

“With an aging population, patients consistently have more than one comorbidity when they enter the hospital system,” said Michael Mestek, Global Head of Clinical Research and Medical Science within the Acute Care and Monitoring division at Medtronic. “Almost all patients could be considered at risk for a serious event on a medical or surgical floor.”³

This trend cannot be effectively managed through traditional methods of patient monitoring, which often rely on periodic vital sign checks by clinical staff, potentially leaving critical care gaps.⁴

For instance, a patient not considered to be high acuity upon admission might begin showing signs of sepsis, such as a spike in respiratory rate. If clinicians miss this change until their next manual check, early intervention is missed, potentially leading to unplanned intensive care unit transfer.^5,6

Intelligent patient monitoring is poised to positively impact such scenarios, which are increasingly common and costlier.⁷Intelligent patient monitoring is a portfolio of remote monitoring, connectivity and interoperable solutions to help optimize workflow efficiencies, simplify patient management and empower clinicians to prioritize care.^1,8 By leveraging advanced sensors, wearables and data analytics to collect, analyze and interpret health data in real-time, intelligent patient monitoring gives healthcare providers unprecedented visibility into a patient’s condition.¹

Such insights will be critical to enable timely intervention and prevent adverse events.⁵ Beyond improving patient outcomes,⁵ this technology has the potential to improve patient and clinician experience while reducing the cost of care.⁹

Enhancing patient safety and experience

Remote monitoring, a key component of intelligent patient monitoring, protects patient safety and enables more frequent data collection even when a clinician isn’t in the room. 

By adopting wearable devices equipped with advanced sensors, clinicians collect a wealth of patient data that help them make more informed decisions and personalize patient care.^10,11 The data can be transmitted wirelessly to a secure cloud-based platform, where it is analyzed using advanced algorithms. 

This technology allows trends in patients’ conditions to be continuously monitored and analyzed for deviation from the patient’s baseline, according to Mestek. With these actionable insights, if vitals cross a certain threshold, the system can then generate alerts to notify clinicians, enabling them to prioritize care and take appropriate action.^8,10

For example, a retrospective study of nearly 12,000 patients found that wearable technology helped catch most deterioration events in early stages – almost 15 hours sooner than without the technology.¹¹ 

Wearable data therefore facilitates interventions that help reduce patient length of stay.¹¹ It also gives patients a more active role in their health through user-friendly devices and easy-to-understand information. Personalized feedback and support can help patients stay motivated and adhere to their treatment plans.¹²

Transforming clinical workflows and operations

As clinicians are asked to care for more and more patients, intelligent patient monitoring extends beyond patient safety with the potential to significantly transform clinical workflows, Mestek said. Whereas intermittent monitoring places a substantial burden on staff,¹³ remote wearable monitoring technology is associated with reduced practitioner workload, freeing up time to focus on direct patient care.

Real-time insights also enable clinicians to make more informed care decisions. With the aid of intelligent algorithms, continuous monitoring systems can analyze large volumes of data for patterns and correlations that may not be apparent to human observers. 

Furthermore, these systems offer providers critical, real-time patient information even outside traditional healthcare settings. As at-home care grows in popularity, using wearables for home monitoring could help clinicians detect and treat issues quickly.  

“(With) an early alert, they can make an adjustment in care to avoid the criticality that would require (the patient) to return to the hospital,” Mestek said. 

By reducing hospital stays, preventing readmissions and optimizing resource utilization, these technologies can be “beneficial for the organization from a cost and operations perspective,” he added.¹⁴ 

The future of healthcare is now

In the coming years, healthcare could see the emergence of even more advanced intelligent patient monitoring solutions. Mestek said he anticipates the integration of sophisticated sensors, AI and machine learning to deliver even more precise, personalized and equitable care.

However, many powerful solutions are already available. 

“We don't have to wait for the future,” Mestek said. “There are technologies available today to empower nurses and clinicians to take these actionable insights, to make decisions that benefit patients right now.”

For instance, Medtronic’s HealthCast portfolio of products includes remote patient monitoring technologies as well as data connectivity services to facilitate the seamless flow of critical information. 

“HealthCast is all about providing actionable data to clinicians so that they can individualize care, whether for a patient who is in the hospital or in the home,” Mestek said. 

By embracing innovation and investing in such solutions, healthcare organizations can enhance patient care, empower clinicians and position themselves for long-term success.