Effects of telemedicine and remote monitoring on hospitalization among home health-care patients: a systematic review

With the aging of the global population, home health care (HHC) has become a feasible alternative within health-care systems, particularly for patients with chronic diseases. However, the effectiveness of implementing remote patient monitoring (RPM) in HHC for reducing healthcare resource utilization among patients with chronic diseases remains unclear. This systematic review examined the effects of various RPM interventions on health-care resource utilization for HHC patients aged 50 years and older with chronic diseases. Keyword searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Embase for studies published from 1996 onwards on RPM interventions for HHC patients aged 50 years and above with chronic diseases. Following the removal of duplicate studies and a thorough literature screening process, eligible studies were included for analysis. A total 13 studies involving 4,528 patients, predominantly women, were analyzed. The durations of all RPM interventions were within 12 months. Most of the included studies focused on patients with heart failure and implemented HHC+RPM as a treatment. These interventions often incorporated multiple strategies to reduce hospitalizations and readmissions. RPM interventions significantly reduce readmission rates. Utilizing RPM models in combination with HHC interventions appears to be more effective than HHC alone in reducing hospitalizations and readmissions. (Taiwan J Public Health. 2024;43(6):527-536).