For many patients, the post-inpatient treatment phase is a critical transition phase, which can be characterized by persistent symptoms and reduced performance on the one hand and, in some cases, inadequate treatment options on the other. In a cooperation between the Institute for Community Medicine and the Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, telemedical care concepts for patients with depressive and anxiety disorders as well as with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are being developed and examined whether these patient groups benefit from additional telephone support and SMS messages from the Everyday coping and psychological stabilization benefit.
Studies show the benefit of Telemedicine
Experts repeatedly emphasize the importance of telemedicine for health care. Nevertheless, the possibilities have so far hardly been exhausted. Telemedicine could save hundreds of heart patients a hospital stay every day. Telemedicine makes sense. Telemedicine can be of great benefit, especially for rural regions.
Telemedicine is the transfer of medical images and information over a larger spatial distance. In this way, doctors and patients or even several doctors can communicate with one another and thus support the diagnosis and therapy of the patient. Telemedicine can be particularly useful in rural areas, which are often threatened by insufficient medical care. But although there are now many innovative approaches, telemedical solutions have only become standard in a few cases or have been introduced into regular inpatient or outpatient operations. To this day, it is mainly small organizational structures that offer telemedical solutions.Garden Psych can provide psychiatry services using telemedicine throughout New Jersey.
Telemedicine can help with heart failure
Experts are now calling for more and more support for telemedical solutions. Telemedicine applications have proven particularly useful for heart patients. In the CHAMPION study, for example, in which the participants’ heart values were determined daily via telecardiology so that the drug dose could be adjusted, the number of hospital admissions fell by a third. In the IN-TIME study, on the other hand, doctors use telecardiology to care for cardiac patients with an implanted defibrillator. Here, the participants had a significantly lower risk of death than patients who did not receive remote follow-up care.
Telecardiology can be used to monitor the course of the disease and intervene at an early stage in the event of abnormal values, explains Professor Friedrich Köhler, Head of the Center for Cardiovascular Telemedicine at the Charité and Deputy Chairman of the “Telemedicine” commission of the DGIM. In return, the telemedicine-assisted patients either receive measuring devices at home or the data from existing therapeutic implants, such as implanted defibrillators, are read out telemedical for therapy management.
Less hospital stays thanks to telemedicine
New developments are diagnostic implants specially developed for telemedical therapy management, which, for example, measure the pressure in the pulmonary artery in the patient’s pulmonary circulation. On the basis of these values, a cardiologist can, if necessary, adjust the dose of medication individually, ask the patient to come to a consultation, or order an immediate admission to the hospital. Pilot projects, e-health initiatives – more and more telemedical methods are being used to care for patients. Regional networks are being formed and federal states are developing concepts for the nationwide use of telemedicine. But there is often no scientific evidence that telemedicine really improves care. The current study situation and the question of which level of evidence should be required for a telemedical application was discussed by doctors and scientists.