Secure remote patient monitoring in the home

Project Title:

Secure Remote Patient Monitoring in the home

Supervisor(s):

Dr Venki Balasubramanian, A/Prof Andrew Stranieri and A/Prof Iqbal Gondal

Contact person and email address:

Dr Venki Balasubramanian: v.balasubramanian@federation.edu.au

A brief description of the project:

Hospital in the Home (HITH) sites enable patients to recover from procedures at home while being visited by a registered nurse daily. Emerging remote monitoring technology (RPM) enables HITH patients to monitor vital signs at home between nurse visits. However, RPM raises issues concerning privacy and security.

This study will qualitatively examine RPM use amongst HITH patients in a rural setting to identify patient, nurse and clinician reactions and experiences with this emerging technology. Results will inform policies for RPM in HITH.

Well documented barriers to effective use of a new technology in health care (LeRouge, Hevner, & Collins, 2007) include patient attitudes, clinical workflow integration and cost sustainability.

This research project will run a pilot study of HITH patients from Wimmera Health Care Group.  Patients, nurses and doctors will be interviewed and a qualitative thematic analysis of the transcripts will be conducted to identify key issues associated with home based vital sign monitoring.  A protocol for the optimal deployment of vital signs monitoring amongst HITH patients will be a project outcome.