Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare > Volume 11, Supplement 1 > Pp. 86-88

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Vontetsianos, T. Articles by Tsoulkas, B Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Papers

Telemedicine-assisted home support for patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: preliminary results after nine-month follow-up

Th Vontetsianos, P Giovas, Th Katsaras, A Rigopoulou, G Mpirmpa, P Giaboudakis, S Koyrelea, G Kontopyrgias and B Tsoulkas

Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece; Special Telemedicine Unit, Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital of Athens, Athens, Greece
Eighteen well motivated patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who had had at least four hospitalizations during the previous two years, were included in a home-based telemedicine study. A visiting nurse was equipped with a case containing a laptop computer and a number of medical devices, including an electrocardiogram recorder, spirometer, oximeter and blood pressure monitor. It also contained a videoconference camera, for realtime audiovisual connection with the hospital using the patient's TV set. A single ISDN line (128 kbit/s) was installed in each house before the study began. After nine months, there was a decrease in hospitalizations, emergency department visits and use of health services. The patient's disease knowledge and self-management also improved. It seems likely that adopting telemedicine in everyday clinical practice could substantially improve the care of chronically ill patients.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?