Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .
Evaluation of home telehealth following hospitalization for heart failure: a randomized trial.
Previous studies have found that home-based intervention programs reduce readmission rates for patients with heart failure . Only one previous trial has compared telephone and videophone to traditional care to deliver a home-based heart failure intervention program . The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a telehealth-facilitated postdischarge support program in reducing re source use in patients with heart failure . Patients at a Midwestern Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center were r and omized to telephone , videophone , or usual care for follow-up care after hospitalization for heart failure exacerbation . Outcome measures included readmission rates ; time to first readmission ; urgent care clinic visits ; survival ; and quality of life . The intervention result ed in a significantly longer time to readmission but had no effect on readmission rates or mortality . There were no differences in hospital days or urgent care clinic use . All subjects reported higher disease-specific quality of life scores at 1 year . There was evidence of the value of telephone follow-up , but there was no evidence to support the benefit of videophone care over telephone care . Rigorous evaluation is needed to determine which patients may benefit most from specific telehealth applications and which technologies are most cost-effective
Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .