Mobile Health Devices - Cut Costs, Save Lives
Posted by David Sanderson on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 03:20 PM
Mobile health technologies have been making headway for some time now. In recent years, faced with increasing medical costs and limited resources, patients have been presented with at-home patient monitoring devices. These devices can address many of the problems doctors, patients, and insurers are faced with today.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Aetna estimates 40% of readmission rates are avoidable – admission for a hospital stay can cost upwards of $6,000 while at-home heart monitoring devices cost around $600. They also reported on how a study of a new cardiac monitoring sensor used a wireless transmitter that “…resulted in a 30% reduction in hospitalization for heart-failure patients.”
Cutting costs and increasing the quality of patient care are clearly high priorities for the healthcare industry. Both of these can be addressed through the use of these kinds of portable medical devices.
Feel free to read the full WSJ article.