6 Remote Patient Monitoring Companies in the News
To meet the rising demand for RPM services, provider organizations have increasingly partnered with vendors that can meet their patient population's unique needs.
Amid the growing popularity of remote patient monitoring (RPM) services, several health systems have partnered with companies to launch programs and bring the benefits of RPM to their patients.
RPM use skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with one data analysis showing that RPM claim volume increased by 1,294 percent from January 2019 to November 2022. The data also showed that essential hypertension had the highest share of RPM-related claims at 51 percent, followed by diabetes mellitus with complications (10.4 percent).
With this massive jump in RPM use, there is rising interest in companies supporting provider efforts to implement remote care. Here are six companies that have made mHealthIntelligence headlines since the beginning of 2022.
Note: This list is neither exhaustive nor a ranking of the companies.
Cadence
The health technology company provides an RPM platform to support treatment for hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Through connected devices, the platform collects vital sign readings and transmits them to the clinical team. Cadence also provides health system partners access to an advanced practice provider-led care team that manages RPM operations. Further, it offers two-way EMR integration, which enables clinical partners to view data within their EMR system. The company aims to improve chronic care, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, and mitigate the workflow burden on clinical staff.
Several health systems have selected Cadence as their RPM partner in the past year. Most recently, Providence, a 52-hospital system spanning Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington, entered into an agreement with the company to implement RPM and responsive virtual care capabilities. Results from a pilot program showed that 89 percent of participants took vitals daily, and only 0.2 percent of remote encounters were escalated to Providence clinicians.
Current Health
Current Health provides a solution that helps provider organizations customize and scale remote care programs. The solution gathers data from numerous sources, including Current Health's Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-cleared biosensor and third-party devices, to provide comprehensive insights into patient health metrics. The solution includes a single dashboard for all patients, analyzing individual data to alert clinicians to patients needing immediate attention. Further, the solution allows for virtual visits and asynchronous messaging.
Launched in the United Kingdom, Current Health entered the US market in 2019. Two years later, consumer electronics giant Best Buy bought the company for $400 million. With this acquisition, Best Buy aims to connect patients and clinicians, providing the technology and technical support to drive remote care. Last month, the retailer entered into a three-year partnership with Atrium Health to develop new at-home acute care offerings and enhance its hospital-at-home program.
BioIntelliSense
The company provides a suite of continuous monitoring devices that capture data and platforms that analyze it to determine health trends. The suite includes a rechargeable wearable known as the BioButton, which continuously monitors skin temperature, resting heart rate, gait, respiratory heart rate at rest, and body position. BioIntellisense also provides the BioCloud platform that performs data analytics and leverages algorithms to support clinical decision-making and triage workflows. Its devices span the ambulatory, acute, post-acute, and home care settings. Within these settings, the devices can be used to conduct renal disease monitoring, inpatient status monitoring, post-discharge hospital-to-home care, and chronic care management.
Numerous health systems have partnered with BioIntelliSense. In December, the company announced a collaboration with Ardent Health Services, a Tennessee-based organization that owns and operates 30 hospitals and nearly 200 sites of care across six states.
Biofourmis
The company's BiofourmisCare arm aims to support care-at-home programs, including hospital-at-home, transitional care, and chronic care management. Its solutions leverage continuous health monitoring, care coordination tools, artificial intelligence-guided software, virtual communication, and care pathways to enable virtual and home-based care. BiofourmisCare's disease-specific pathways span the cardiometabolic, pulmonary, oncologic, and infectious disease fields and aim to improve care coordination. The company includes a national provider network of physicians, nurses, and health navigators and partners with in-home providers for ancillary services, such as phlebotomy and infusion.
In January, Orlando Health announced plans to work with Biofourmis to launch a hospital-at-home program for Central Florida residents. The health system, which includes 23 hospitals and emergency departments, will implement various Biofourmis solutions, including the Biovitals Analytics Engine. Smaller provider organizations have also struck partnerships with the company. For instance, Blessing Health System in Quincy, Illinois, collaborated with Biofourmis last March to launch hospital-at-home services.
Stel Life
Stel Life's Vitals Hub integrates with a wide array of RPM devices, including scales, blood pressure cuffs, glucometers, and thermometers. The platform does not require patients to have a smart device or access to Wi-Fi. It can be plugged into an electric outlet, and patients can start using the connected devices. The data is transmitted via major cell carriers to the patient's EMR. The company's platform can support various RPM-enabled programs, including hospital-at-home and chronic care management.
Last December, Tampa General Hospital, a nonprofit academic medical center with 1,040 beds, partnered with Stel Life. Through the partnership, the hospital announced plans to add RPM tools to treat conditions such as COPD, congestive heart failure, and high blood pressure.
Health Recovery Solutions
Health Recovery Solutions provides technology to support RPM services for various patient populations, including those with COPD, cardiac issues, and diabetes. Its technology roster includes PatientConnect Complete, which supports care transitions from the hospital to the home for high-acuity patients, PatientConnect Core, which enables symptom management and clinical monitoring for palliative care, hospice, and behavioral health patients, and PatientConnect Voice, an interactive voice response system that aims to increase patient engagement and adherence post-discharge. The company also provides analytics capabilities and reports, such as risk alert response, clinical workflow, and reimbursement reports.
Health Recovery Solutions has more than 400 US health system clients. One of these is Lee Health, which struck a partnership with the company last July. Through the partnership, the Florida-based health system plans to provide remote care for congestive heart failure, COPD, hypertension, and post-cardiothoracic surgery, aiming to lower readmissions and visits to the emergency room. Health Recovery Solutions was also named a 'Best in KLAS' vendor for RPM in 2023.