Tele-monitoring Technology as a Tool for Monitoring and Management of Patients with Congestive Heart Failure

Abstract

Telehealth interventions are designed to facilitate the remote exchange of information and data between patients and health care providers, improving the quality and safety of the patients and increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness of health care providers. The development of telecommunications and virtual technology allowed a number of telehealth systems to be applied in different health care areas. These technologies can provide an alternative monitoring and solutions for decreasing the hospital readmission rates for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). In this paper, a systematic literature review regarding tele-monitoring and its use in the management of patients with CHF is conducted. The result indicated that a standardized tele-monitoring design would reduce a length of hospitalization and re-hospitalization rate. The other factors that moderate the effectiveness of the tele-monitoring intervention include quality of life, mortality rate, and disease-specific knowledge (health literacy). All these factors align with the consumer-centred principle of The Australian Safety and Quality Framework for Health Care.