Use of telemedicine in patients with chronic respiratory failure

Telemedicine is an innovative approach to help the medical team that integrates hospital and territory in a chronic patient care. The aim of this study is to evaluate it’s effectiveness in a sample of patients with Chronic Respiratory Failure (CRF). From June 2009 through February 2013 a specialized nurse followed the main vital signs of 64 patients(28 Male, 36 Female; mean age 71.6 ± 9.3 years) in Long Term O 2 Therapy(LTOT) and/or mechanical ventilation (VM). In the presence of variation of vital signs and conditions of patients, a general practitioner and the specialist pulmonologist were alerted by these changes. The average number of days of hospitalization and daily average consumption of O 2 in the year prior to enrollment were compared to those found in the next two years of study. For evaluating statistical significance, the Student9s t test was used. During this observation period, 8 patients (10.9%) have abandoned the project and 22 patients (34.4%) died of their complication (higher mortality rate seen among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (64.7%)). In 26 patients (Male 6, Female 20; average age 66.5± 13.4), with at least one year follow up has detected a statistically significant reduction in the average of daily consumption of O 2 (2601,8± 1683,7 versus 1930,4± 1643,3 l/day -p=0,018) and number of days of hospitalization (16,9± 25,9 versus 4,3± 8,3 days -p=0,027), and the result preserved in 21 patients with two years follow up (17,3± 28,2 versus 4± 8 -p=0,034). The data demonstrates the usefulness and effectiveness of a "Tele-nursing" and "telemonitoring"in patients with severe respiratory disease which are in LTOT and/ or VM.