Center for Tech and Aging grants $500,000 to telehealth projects
The Center for Technology and Aging will provide grants to five healthcare organizations to test the efficacy and quality of remote home monitoring to improve chronic disease management and post-acute care.
Use of remote home monitoring systems—point-of-care monitoring devices, glucometers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs)—to follow patients with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and other conditions, could trim down costs by almost $200 billion over the next 25 years, according to the Oakland, Calif.-based Center for Technology and Aging.
The center said it is seeking to exhibit how home monitoring can lead to reduced hospitalizations and the need for patients to be placed in higher cost care settings.
Each organization will receive $100,000 and will be supplemented with a total of over $1.7 million in matching funds.
The following five organizations have been selected to receive grants:
"Remote patient management technologies make a huge difference in the quality of life for those living with chronic conditions," said David Lindeman, PhD, director of the Center for Technology and Aging. "These projects will underscore the need to reform reimbursement policies and make possible wider adoption of these technologies in public programs—Medicare and Medicaid—as well as among private insurers and healthcare systems."
Use of remote home monitoring systems—point-of-care monitoring devices, glucometers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs)—to follow patients with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure and other conditions, could trim down costs by almost $200 billion over the next 25 years, according to the Oakland, Calif.-based Center for Technology and Aging.
The center said it is seeking to exhibit how home monitoring can lead to reduced hospitalizations and the need for patients to be placed in higher cost care settings.
Each organization will receive $100,000 and will be supplemented with a total of over $1.7 million in matching funds.
The following five organizations have been selected to receive grants:
- Sharp HealthCare Foundation in San Diego, whose project will work with senior and home health agencies to monitor patients with five or more chronic conditions to reduce readmission rates;
- New England Healthcare Institute in Cambridge, Mass., will collaborate with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Atrius Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to use the Electronic House Call system (ExpressMD) to show the clinical and financial benefits of its use;
- AltaMed Health Services in Los Angeles and the Stamford Hospital in Stamford, Conn., will partner to monitor low-income seniors with hypertension, congestive heart failure or diabetes to promote self-management using the HomeMed device (Honey Well). The partnership will also work to establish a “Telehealth Technician” position within community college training programs;
- Centura Health At Home in Denver will use telehealth video technologies, inLife and Life View (American TeleCare), to improve call center responses for home patients to reduce readmissions and improve quality of life; and
- California Association for Health Services at Home Foundation in Sacramento, Calif., will partner with home care agencies and use Intel’s Health Guide to monitor patients with chronic disease conditions in hopes to reduce 30-day readmission rates and emergency room visits.
"Remote patient management technologies make a huge difference in the quality of life for those living with chronic conditions," said David Lindeman, PhD, director of the Center for Technology and Aging. "These projects will underscore the need to reform reimbursement policies and make possible wider adoption of these technologies in public programs—Medicare and Medicaid—as well as among private insurers and healthcare systems."