Patients were generally satisfied and found the systems useful to help them manage their disease and improve healthcare provision .
Nevertheless , they reported some difficulties in their use , which in some studies were related to lower compliance rates .
AIM This systematic review aim ed to provide a comprehensive description of the method ologies used in home telemonitoring interventions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ( COPD ) and to explore patients ' adherence and satisfaction with the use of telemonitoring systems .
Using preventive home monitoring to reduce hospital admission rates and reduce costs: a case study of telehealth among chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients
We studied whether preventive home monitoring of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ) could reduce the frequency of hospital admissions and lower the cost of hospitalization .  Patients were recruited from a health centre , general practitioner ( GP ) or the pulmonary hospital ward . They were r and omized to usual care or tele-rehabilitation  with a telehealth monitoring device installed in their home for four months . A total of 111 patients were suitable for inclusion and consented to be r and omized : 60 patients were allocated to intervention and three were lost to follow-up . In the control group 51 patients were allocated to usual care and three patients were lost to follow-up . In the tele-rehabilitation group , the mean hospital admission rate was 0.49 per patient per 10 months compared to the control group rate of 1.17 ; this difference was significant ( P = 0.041 ) . The mean cost of admissions was € 3461 per patient in the intervention group and € 4576 in the control group ; this difference was not significant . The Kaplan-Meier estimates for time to hospital admission were longer for the intervention group than the controls , but the difference was not significant . Future work requires large-scale studies of prolonged home monitoring with more extended follow-up
Patients were generally satisfied and found the systems useful to help them manage their disease and improve healthcare provision .
Nevertheless , they reported some difficulties in their use , which in some studies were related to lower compliance rates .
AIM This systematic review aim ed to provide a comprehensive description of the method ologies used in home telemonitoring interventions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ( COPD ) and to explore patients ' adherence and satisfaction with the use of telemonitoring systems .