I can appreciate good doctor blogs from
time to time. As I said in this blog, these devices are coming. I
was somewhat surprised by this one, but we will see more of them in
the year ahead. This doctor does what is expected by saying he does
not have time to read every EKG presented. That is as it should be
under the current medical system, but when the Affordable Care Act
becomes the system, and pay is based on cost reductions and penalties
for failure to reduce costs, then doctors will have no choice but to
consider patient used devices.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) devices
will apparently be coming on the market in a variety of ways
(prescribed and over the counter). For those devices that are
prescribed, doctors and hospitals would be wise to have one of these
in stock and test the reliability for themselves. Then rather than
downplaying the FDA approval, they need to discern whether they are
as bad as envisioned, or if they are indeed reliable as the Food and
Drug Administration has determined. This will mean that the
specifications for the patient device may not be a tight as the
instrument used by trained personnel in their labs, but it will give
some indications of problems needing further medical attention or
not.
Doctors and hospitals may also want to
have over the counter devices on hand to test them as well. Doctors
and hospitals that do not, will be opening themselves to much
criticism when they dismiss these as just another device that makes
their jobs more difficult. Yes, we know the hypochondriacs will
insist on having these devices, but people with the disease or
illness will also use them often to their advantage. This will be
much like the blood glucose meters people with diabetes use now.
Some learn how to use them properly and to interpret the readings,
while others just think they are doing this for the benefit of their
doctor, which is wrong.
Is the doctor right to be concerned
about the legal aspects of prescribing a remote-monitoring device?
He is probably right to be concerned, but eventually, our medical
system is going to need to realize that devices approved by the FDA
for patient use must be excluded from frivolous lawsuits against
doctors. This will be especially true when remote patient monitoring
becomes required under the Affordable Care Act. Yes, even then there
will be people that purchase the wrong device and sue because it
malfunctioned for them. The get rich quick schemes people think up
will continue until they are no longer alive and then another person
will take up the scheme.
Image courtesy of maximintegrated.com
Do I expect to see many more devices
for patient monitoring being blogged about? Yes, some will be
balanced and concerned like this doctor, but many will be ranted
about and have little value for the consuming public.
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