Home Monitoring Technology Saving Hundreds of Hospital Bed Days in COVID-19 Crisis

patientMpower, the digital healthcare company providing the technology for the HSE’s COVID-19 home monitoring programme, today confirmed that over 250 patients with COVID-19 have been discharged from hospital with the aid of home monitoring. patientMpower is an Irish digital healthcare company based in The Digital Hub.

The home monitoring programme is now set up in most major hospitals across Ireland. These hospitals can now discharge patients with less severe COVID-19 symptoms, where they will need to remain in self-isolation, but with the safety net of home monitoring of their symptoms and vital signs. This is crucial for freeing up hospital beds and resources for those with more severe disease, particularly as the anticipated surge in COVID-19 cases approaches.

patientMpower’s app, which must be prescribed by a healthcare professional, measures patients’ vital signs including oxygen saturation – a marker of how well a patient’s lungs are working. Patients’ information is immediately available for healthcare staff to view via a secure portal in the hospital. If all the signals are good, the patient can continue to recover at home. However, if there are signs that the patient may not be recovering as anticipated they can be quickly brought back into hospital for treatment.

The company is one of a sub-cluster in The Digital Hub which are playing a key role in the State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These companies are engaged in the provision of essential services to the HSE and other government agencies, demonstrating the importance of innovation and the strength of the partnerships between industry and the state.

Commenting, Martin Curley, Head of Digital Transformation with the HSE said;

“Technology has a massive role to play in this crisis. With the use of home monitoring technology for COVID-19 we can save our hospital resources for patients who need them most, but quickly move patients back to hospital if they begin to show more severe symptoms whilst they are in self-isolation at home.”

Eamonn Costello, CEO of patientMpower commented:

“We are an experienced provider of home monitoring systems for lung disease, so when the first coronavirus cases were reported in Ireland we put all of our resources behind developing technology to help our healthcare staff cope with this crisis. With the support of the HSE, and with rapid uptake by hospitals, this technology has already helped save hundreds of hospital beds for those that need them most.”

The Digital Hub actively supports companies who develop digital solutions to healthcare problems. With a renewed focus on “Connected Health”, today, 10 per cent of The Digital Hub’s client companies are in the eHealth area.

Commenting, CEO of The Digital Hub Fiach Mac Conghail said;

“We’re situated close to some of the largest existing and future healthcare centres in the state. There is already a high degree of collaboration between The Digital Hub and the health service, and these channels for sharing ideas and innovations have already achieved a lot. It’s encouraging to see connected health innovations having potential impact when they are most needed for citizens.”

Fellow Digital Hub company MEG Support Tools which provides digital quality management solutions for hospitals is offering free setup and support to healthcare staff for activities including; quality monitoring tools, COVID-19-related content and onboarding guidance and SOPs for staff redeployed into infection prevention and control roles. One of the newest arrivals at The Digital Hub is technology start-up Akara Robotics who have developed and deployed Robot Violet which emits ultraviolet light to rid medical facilities of viruses, bacteria and germs quickly and thoroughly. The technology was tested by the HSE in two acute hospitals in Dublin last month to identify the impact it can have in the fight against COVID-19.