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Review
. 2010 Feb;107(8):131-8.
doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2010.0131. Epub 2010 Feb 26.

Home telemonitoring in patients with chronic heart failure: a chance to improve patient care?

Silke Schmidt  1 , Andreas Schuchert, Thomas Krieg, Michael Oeff
Affiliations
Review

Home telemonitoring in patients with chronic heart failure: a chance to improve patient care?

Silke Schmidt et al. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2010 Feb.

Abstract

Background: Telemonitoring can improve the medical care, quality of life, and prognosis of chronically ill patients. This review article summarizes the current status of health services research on telemonitoring, focusing on patients with chronic congestive heart failure.

Method: The Medline database was selectively searched for articles appearing from June 2001 to May 2008, with an emphasis on randomized, controlled trials.

Results: The available scientific data on vital signs monitoring are limited, yet there is evidence for a positive effect on some clinical endpoints, particularly mortality. Nonetheless, any possible improvement of patient-reported outcomes, such as the quality of life, still remains to be demonstrated.

Conclusions: The data suggest that telemonitoring is effective, yet there is no evidence for superior outcomes with any particular model of care incorporating telemonitoring (i.e., monitoring of vital signs versus structured telephone monitoring). A valid criticism is that the individual components of home telemonitoring have not yet been separately tested in order to compare their individual effects.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monitoring of vital signs versus standard care. SF-36/SF-12, 36-item/12-item Short-Form Health Survey (self-assessment questionnaire on health status); MLHFQ, Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire; QoL(GHQ), quality of life measured using the General Health Questionnaire; CHFQ, Chronic Heart Failure Questionnaire (a questionnaire on chronic heart failure that has numerous subscales; considered here are the fourth emotional function scale and the fourth mastery scale); CI, confidence interval
Figure 2
Figure 2
Telephone intervention versus standard care. SF-36/SF-12, 36-item/12-item Short-Form Health Survey (self-assessment questionnaire on health status); MLHFQ, Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire; CI, confidence interval; * Comparison: Telephone support versus usual care
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of the effects of telemonitoring on mortality. Odds ratios between intervention group and control group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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