Selected patients with IBD or atrial fibrillation decide for themselves whether or not they want to participate in home monitoring. The participants install the Thuismeten app on their smartphone. They can then answer questions about their specific disease in the app.
Atrial fibrillation
Twice a week, patients with atrial fibrillation answer questions about their complaints and measure their heart rhythm up to cardioversion. Cardioversion is a treatment for atrial fibrillation, in which a too fast heart rhythm is converted into a normal rhythm in the hospital. This can be done via an electric shock or with medicines per drip.
So before that treatment, the patients register their findings and measurements in the app. The aim is to recognize a normal rhythm in time, so that it can be determined whether a cardioversion is the right treatment. It also allows for more effective management of the waiting list for elective cardioversions. The patient also has more control over the measurement process and the policy adopted for the patient is also optimized after the cardioversion.
monitor IBD
For example, the IBD patients fill out a questionnaire about Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis and take a stool test (calprotectin test), which they can collect at the outpatient clinic or at a service location. The IBD patient receives advice directly from the app. In some cases, the patient is contacted. The goal is to be able to intervene earlier through monitoring to prevent clinical admissions of IBD patients.
Thuismonitoring & facts
Home monitoring is increasingly being used in practice for chronic conditions such as COPD, heart failure and diabetes. But also, for example, to keep an eye on people who have just come home after a major procedure. It is nice that they have to go to the outpatient clinic or hospital less often and it is a safe feeling that you are automatically monitored.
For example, via a smart app, patients with IBD and atrial fibrillation are constantly connected to the care provider of Noordwest. In this way, the necessary care can always be provided at the right time and the patient does not have to come to the hospital’s outpatient clinic. Continuous monitoring can often prevent the patient from developing more serious complaints or having to be admitted.
Signal in case of deviations
When values registered by the patient deviate, the doctors and nurse specialists automatically receive a signal. NWZ: “These reports are read on working days for IBD and once a week for atrial fibrillation. If necessary, the healthcare provider will contact the patient directly, for example via video calls. The big advantage for the participating patients is that they do not have to come to the outpatient clinic.”