What Makes RPM And Telehealth Different?

Telehealth and remote patient monitoring are two relatively new and highly sought-after practices in the medical sector. Both of them primarily build upon the principle of home health monitoring, and both of these prospects can be addressed in close association with each other.

Telehealth remote patient monitoring holds significant benefits and is quite often used interchangeably in the medical sector because of the close proximity of their functions and benefits. This article emphasizes the differences between telehealth and remote patient monitoring, along with their individual benefits.  

What is Remote Patient Monitoring?

Remote patient monitoring is one of the highly specialized methods of virtual healthcare that utilizes the latest technological advancements to collect, evaluate, and analyze patient data outside the thresholds of orthodox health care practices. Remote patient monitoring aims at broadening the arena of healthcare by making it accessible to everyone at all times, irrespective of a patient’s geographical location or medical condition.

Related: Value Of Remote Patient Monitoring For Patients

Therefore, it allows healthcare professionals to provide medical assistance right at patients’ houses, eliminating the need to commute to hospitals or healthcare centers. It also allows them to enjoy a sense of normalcy in their lives without having to rush to the hospital frequently following a strict checkup routine. Thus, RPM effectively bridges the gap between healthcare professionals and patients by augmenting the quality of connectivity and patient healthcare administration.

Although RPM may sound to be a relatively complex technology, it can be something as uncomplicated and straightforward as wearing a health monitoring device, such as a FitBit or a Smart Watch, that holds the capacity to record medical information such as blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation level, and stress level.

Related: Using Remote patient monitoring to Manage Hypertension

The device then transmits the recorded information to a medical professional, who either compares it to your previous records or analyzes it individually to chalk out a suitable treatment plan, devise a new treatment plan or prescribe medications better suited to treat a condition or determine the effect of a particular kind of treatment or medication on a patient. RPM also allows greater patient engagement in healthcare management, allowing them to work in close association with medical specialists and actively determine which factors, treatment procedures, or medications bring about positive and negative effects.

There are several devices used for remote patient monitoring and may be used either collectively or individually to fit the necessary medical requirements of a patient and improve their health. The device use also depends on the patient’s medical condition and lifestyle, as RPM emphasizes satisfying these needs.

What is Telehealth?

Telehealth is a relatively older medical approach as compared to remote patient monitoring and is a primarily electronic or virtual method of healthcare administration. This healthcare approach is most suitable for situations where the patient and healthcare provider are at a considerable distance apart, which cannot be bridged without compromising the patient’s health. An apt example, in this case, can be that of the Covid-19 pandemic, which wreaked havoc all across the globe and prevented patients and healthcare providers from coming closer to each other for safety reasons. Although particular medical conditions require physical examinations, most of them can be diagnosed and treated virtually without compromising the professionalism and effectiveness of healthcare administration.

Related: How Can Telehealth Benefit Post Acute Care?

Some experts consider the inability to use technology accurately may be the drawback of telehealth, which is especially the case for the baby boomer generation. Since telehealth requires patients and healthcare providers to set up a video or voice meeting with minimum interruption, it may pose a problem for some people. In addition, the medical ailments that require patients to come in direct contact with healthcare providers can not be dealt with remotely.

However, despite these drawbacks, telehealth boasts innumerable advantages. These include an increase in patients because of its virtual nature, enhanced workflow and efficiency, and elevated patient engagement.

What Makes RPM and Telehealth Different?

The primary contrasting feature between telehealth and remote patient monitoring is that RPM makes use of technologies that help healthcare providers interact with patients from a distance, whereas telehealth encapsulates the industry as a complete whole, encompassing all kinds of technologies used to provide this healthcare type. Hence, telehealth is a broader term that may include remote patient monitoring along with several other aspects of healthcare, such as the types of technologies required to acquire, store, and exchange data from healthcare providers to take reference from for the provision of healthcare to patients.

Related: What is Telehealth and How Can Telehealth Help Patients?

On the other hand, telehealth is primarily concerned with connecting a healthcare provider to a patient to attain the necessary treatment. When using RPM, patients can take charge of monitoring their health into their own hands and make the required changes accordingly without running off to a physician at every minor discomfort.

If you are looking to attain top-notch telehealth or remote patient monitoring services, SmartClinix is the most suitable option for you. American board-certified and fellowship-trained medical professionals at SmartClinix offer seamless telemedicine and RPM services through their portal, and you can avail of this facility by heading over to SmartClinix right now!