COVID-19 Remote Patient Monitoring: Social Impact of AI

TL;DR

This paper discusses the deployment of remote patient monitoring technology for COVID-19 to reduce healthcare strain, improve community care, and support decision-making, emphasizing the social impact and clarity in definitions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive approach for remote COVID-19 patient monitoring using readily available technology and clarifies the definition of RPM for better implementation and communication.

Findings

Real-time remote monitoring can reduce hospital strain.

Communitywide RPM improves patient morale and control.

Cloud-based platforms enable better pandemic management.

Abstract

A primary indicator of success in the fight against COVID-19 is avoiding stress on critical care infrastructure and services (CCIS). However, CCIS will likely remain stressed until sustained herd immunity is built. There are also secondary considerations for success: mitigating economic damage; curbing the spread of misinformation, improving morale, and preserving a sense of control; building global trust for diplomacy, trade and travel; and restoring reliability and normalcy to day-to-day life, among others. We envision technology plays a pivotal role. Here, we focus on the effective use of readily available technology to improve the primary and secondary success criteria for the fight against SARS-CoV-2. In a multifaceted technology approach, we start with effective technology use for remote patient monitoring (RPM) of COVID-19 with the following objectives: 1. Deploy readily available technology for continuous real-time remote monitoring of patient vitals with the help of biosensors on a large scale. 2. Effective and safe remote large-scale communitywide care of low-severity cases as a buffer against surges in COVID-19 hospitalizations to reduce strain on critical care services and emergency hospitals. 3. Improve the patient, their family, and their community's sense of control and morale. 4. Propose a clear technology and medical definition of remote patient monitoring for COVID-19 to address an urgent technology need; address obfuscated, narrow, and erroneous information and provide examples; and urge publishers to be clear and complete in their disclosures. 5. Leverage the cloud-based distributed cognitive RPM platform for community leaders and decision makers to enable planning and resource management, pandemic research, damage prevention and containment, and receiving feedback on strategies and executions.