JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Due to the adoption of EHRs and legislation on meaningful use in recent decades, health systems are increasingly interdependent on EHR capabilities, offerings, and innovations to better capture patient data. A novel capability offered by health systems encompasses the integration between EHRs and medical devices, or remote patient monitoring (RPM). While RPM has the potential to transform patient care, issues such as concerns with patient privacy, system interoperability, and patient data overload pose a challenge to the adoption of RPM by providers.

Objective:

This study aimed to capture the competitive landscape of RPM and data integration to provider EHRs, specifically Epic due to its prevalence amongst health systems. We covered the following objectives: (1) identify the current innovations and new directions in the field across start-ups, health systems, and insurance companies and (2) understand the associated challenges to inform future RPM projects at other health organizations. Though this study does not provide a full comprehensive catalogue of all RPM initiatives, it is representative of key trends and implications for the integration of patient data into the EHR.

Methods:

We used a systematic process to survey existing efforts through Epic’s online hub and discussion forum, UserWeb, and on the web. We contacted Epic, due to their positioning as the largest commercial EHR system, for information on published client work in the integration of patient-collected data. Results from UserWeb, general web, PubMed, and Google Scholar searches had to meet criteria such as publication date and matching relevant search terms.

Results:

Numerous health institutions have started to integrate device data into patient portals. We identified seven (7) start-up organizations that have developed or are in the process of developing technology to improve RPM for health systems: Vivify Health, Validic, Doximity Dialer, Xealth, Redox, Conversa, and Human API. We reported out sample start-up partnerships with a total of ten (10) health systems in addressing challenges of the meaningful use of device data and streamlining provider workflows. We also found four (4) insurance companies that encourage the growth and uptake of RPM through health tracking and incentive programs: Oscar Health, United Healthcare, Humana, and John Hancock.

Conclusions:

The future design and development of digital technology in this space will rely on continued analysis of best practices, pain points, and potential solutions to mitigate existing challenges. Our work serves as an initial foundation to provide resources on implementation and workflows around RPM for organizations across the healthcare industry. Clinical Trial: None.