Prevention and rehabilitation
Efficient and cost-saving healthcare is becoming increasingly important in our society. New technologies such as telemonitoring allow new concepts of supervision to be introduced here in prevention and in outpatient rehabilitation, but also in occupational rehabilitation.
Medical prevention
The heavily increasing number of people suffering from lifestyle diseases requires more resources targeted at prevention. For diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes 2, permanent back pain or obesity, Aipermon provides options for the continuous observation of vital values such as blood pressure, weight, ECG or movement patterns.
Together with an austrian private health insurance company, for example, a project for hypertension patients was implemented. Patients receive an AiperCoach Home system with a blood pressure meter and scales. They measure their vital values daily and send these to a telemedical centre operated by the health insurance company. The medical team of the medical call centre then review the data, and if there are rising or increased values, the doctors contact the customer by telephone or e-mail and give advice on ways to reduce blood pressure in the long term. In addition, doctors can remind patients to take medication or to remember check-up appointments with the specialist.
After the successful conclusion of the pilot phase for this project, it has now been fully developed and extended since March 2007.
Prevention in companies
A growing interest has been shown by innovative companies in the integration of telemedical components into company prevention programmes, for example to introduce routine exercise programmes for employees, to offer managers regular home monitoring, or to include activity measurement in guided fitness programmes. Aipermon provides companies with elaborately prepared programmes that have both an event character and medium and long-term programme concepts.
Outpatient rehabilitation
Through the use of telemonitoring, new options arise for outpatient rehabilitation in monitoring the sustainability of a therapy and ensuring its success. It can be applied in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, exercise therapies, in geriatrics, orthopaedics, as well as in the treatment of obesity.
The use of an AiperCoach Home system enables a continuous monitoring of therapy, and helps to ensure the long-term success of the rehabilitation.
With the AiperMotion activity sensor, developments and progress in rehabilitation can be continuously observed. In addition to this, the daily amount of exercise can be predefined. Maintaining these guidelines can be controlled by the transfer of data, and a regular response can be provided both through personal appointments and by telephone or in writing.
Supervision can be given here by the rehabilitation institution, the family physician, or by a combination of the two.
Occupational rehabilitation management
Since 1.5.2004, all employers in Germany are under obligation, in accordance with § 84 Section 2 SGB IX, to provide occupational rehabilitation as soon as an employee is unfit to work for longer than six weeks at a time, or repeatedly within one year, irrespective of the size of the company.
The occupational rehabilitation management (BEM) serves to make use of all options at an early stage in providing specific support:
- to quickly overcome the inability to work
- to counteract chronic disease /handicaps
- to prevent a renewed inability to work
- to keep the person in employment
- to ensure an increased work capability and productivity.
For employees with cardiovascular diseases in particular, telemonitoring can be a component providing optimal support in occupational rehabilitation. The combined use of blood pressure meters, scales and physical activity sensor enables:
- the early return of those involved to a normal life and a return to work
- an early detection of the signs for a deterioration in the state of the disease, of accompanying / secondary complications and quicker reaction to changes in the clinical condition
- increased self-responsibility of the "responsible patient", in which he stabilises his state of health through exercise and through continuous observation of blood pressure and weight.
© Aipermon 2007