Feasibility and effectiveness of home care telemedicine in patients with heart failure in thuringia: Analysis of the disease management program zertiva®

Abstract

Home Care Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application in clinical medicine where medical information is transferred via telephone or Internet for the purpose of disease management. We provide a 24 month follow up on Home Care Telemedicine in 90 elder patients with chronic heart failure compared with an age matched control group. The telemedicine group got a mobile 12-channel ECG (Viapac TM, SHL, Tel Aviv, Israel), NYHA III patients transmitted vital parameters on a daily base. Additionally the telemedicine group got disease specific training material. An acute ambulatory ECG could always be transferred to the telemedicine centre and was exploited immediately with a 24 hour a day helpline on duty. During follow up the telemedicine group achieved a significant reduction in hospitalization costs of 71 %: 52 (58%) patients in the telemedicine group were admitted to the hospital a total of 126 times. They stayed in the hospital altogether 858 days. Within the control group, 76 patients (84%) were hospitalized a total of 242 times. These patients spent altogether 2.493 days in the hospital. Telemedicine in elder chronic heart failure patients is effective and coast-saving if used additionally to standard care.