Spacelabs Medical Equipment Selected for Telemedicine Research by Mercy Home Health Services.

Business Editors, Health & Medical Writers

REDMOND, Wash.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 7, 2000

The feasibility of using telemedicine to monitor the health of patients from their homes will be evaluated under a Department of Army grant to Mercy Home Health Services, the home healthcare subsidiary of Mercy Health System, operating in the Philadelphia region.

Mercy has selected monitors from Spacelabs Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLMD) as the monitoring component in a specialized communication package for use in the research study in a group of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF).

"Health care is moving out of acute-care facilities and into the community," said Martha Sheely, RN, Clinical Research Director at Mercy Home Health. "We're looking at the role of telemedicine in helping us to provide care for these patients and others with chronic conditions."

Mercy Home Health Services President and Chief Executive Officer Carol Quinn pointed out, "As insurance companies, HMOs and Medicare shift toward flat-rate payments for a patient's entire cost of care, the healthcare industry is challenged to find ways to reduce costs while maintaining quality of care. Home healthcare is one way to do that and adding telemedicine to home healthcare is being examined to determine the nature and extent of benefits."

Research will focus on CHF patients

CHF is a chronic condition that accounts for a high proportion of the healthcare expenditures in the US. "Patients with CHF are the number one diagnosis for readmission to the hospital," Sheely explained. "They are often elderly and, because it may be difficult for them to get to the doctor, they wait a few days after symptoms appear. By the time they decide to call 911, their condition has worsened such that they require admission to the CCU. This is very expensive care," she added.

Patients in the Mercy Home Health research study will receive an equipment package that includes a Spacelabs monitor to assess a number of noninvasive parameters, including ECG, blood pressure, temperature and pulse oximetry. The package also includes a digital stethoscope for monitoring heart rate and lung sounds. Mercy Home Health will provide patients with the necessary training and instructions to use the equipment package. All of the data are digitally transferred to the central monitoring station at Mercy Home Health, using the patient's existing phone line. A two-way video hook-up provides communication between the patient and nurse.

The research protocol also calls for evaluation of:

-- the acceptance of telemedicine technology by medical personnel as well as
patients.

-- the level of training or skill necessary to operate the equipment to ensure
that accurate assessments can be obtained.

-- the validity of the data collected from a video visit as compared to data
collected from an actual on-site visit.

-- the financial impact of providing telemedicine technology in the home health
setting.

Applications for military field medicine

The grant was awarded and administered by the US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (Building 820, Fort Detrick, MD 21701-5012). According to LTC John Albano, MC, who is the grant officer representative, the military is interested in telemedicine as a way to provide medical care when faced with the recent down-sizing of the military forces and the tactical requirement to have a smaller medical "footprint" in the far, forward areas. Albano said. "If we can effectively use telemedicine to monitor injured soldiers, it would give the health care provider a greater geographic distribution of monitoring capability without their having to be physically present."

The US Army Medical Department is closely watching Mercy's evaluation of the utility of the Spacelabs equipment. "If it's simple enough that subjects in this study can operate it, then it's likely that a soldier can operate it under the stressors of a harsh field environment or urgency of patient evacuation from a combat zone," according to Bob Leitch, Senior Research Associate. He is with the US Army's Casualty Care Research Center (CCRC), whose focus is on telemedicine for use in trauma care. CCRC is providing hands-on training to the Mercy Home Health nurses.

Sheely emphasized that the test program will not replace the home visits these patients currently receive. "As a whole we believe telemedicine will be adjunctive to the care they are receiving." Mercy Home Health Services is a JCAHO-accredited affiliate of Mercy Health System, a healthcare ministry of the Sisters of Mercy serving patients in Philadelphia and surrounding areas of southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

Spacelabs is a leading provider of integrated medical information systems and instrumentation with a strategic focus on wireless, telemedicine and Internet solutions for healthcare.

This project is being conducted under a Department of Army grant (DAMD17-99-2-9012). At this time the Spacelabs equipment used in this study is approved for use in a medical setting and not for home use.

The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.