JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many with acute infection isolated at home, with a small but significant number requiring hospitalization. Patients were afraid and clinicians uncertain. We developed the COVIDFree@home smartphone app to monitor and support people. It was uncertain if such an app would be used by patients is and how this might support patient care.

Objective:

To determine the feasibility of using a smartphone app and clinician dashboard for remote clinical monitoring of people with COVID-19 at home.

Methods:

A feasibility study set at three hospital sites (University Health Network, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Trillium Health Partners) between 2020 and 2022 was conducted. Participants newly diagnosed with COVID-19 were asked to use a smartphone app called COVIDFree@home daily for 10 days while isolating at home. Their data—including symptoms, temperature, and oxygen saturation—were monitored on a clinician-facing dashboard. The primary outcome of feasibility was the number of patients who used the app. We also examined patient satisfaction.

Results:

We recruited 431 patients as study participants, of whom 376 (87.2%) used the app to report symptoms or oxygen saturation at least once. Participants reported symptoms an average of 1.7 times per day (standard deviation = 1.1 days) with 92% reporting them for at least 6 days. There were 19 hospitalizations (4.4%) among study participants.

Conclusions:

Patients with acute COVID-19 infection engaged with a remote home monitoring platform. While COVID-19 no longer evokes the same level of fear as it did during the pandemic, millions are hospitalized and die from acute respiratory infections each year. Remote monitoring has the potential to help improve health outcomes for such infections and reduce strain on the healthcare system during future pandemics. Clinical Trial: Clinicaltrials.Gov: NCT04453774