Telehealth Applications for Stroke Care

Stroke Care and Telehealth Management

Understanding Stroke: A Brief Overview

Strokes are a medical emergency that occurs when something, like a blocked blood vessel or brain bleed, stops a person’s brain from getting enough blood flow. Strokes are one of the leading causes of death across the world and have a long recovery period.

After experiencing a stroke, patients will complete a rehabilitation plan based on the type of stroke, the severity of damage the brain experienced, and which area of the brain was impacted. Having an effective rehabilitation plan is the most important part of treatment. Through rehabilitation, stroke patients can safely adjust to the changes in their brains and bodies under the guidance of medical professionals. These rehabilitation plans can include physical therapy, cognitive rehabilitation, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

Role of Technology in Modern Healthcare

In today’s healthcare landscape, technology plays an essential role in patient management and collaborative care plans. When used with stroke management, technology can be used to measure patient outcomes and progress, allowing healthcare professionals to make adjustments as necessary.

Since the recovery plan for stroke survivors typically requires multiple types of therapy and rehabilitation, provider collaboration is essential to cover all the bases. With telehealth technology, providers can monitor the patient’s progress in the other therapies and communicate with other providers to ensure patient outcomes. If the patient is receiving care at a comprehensive stroke center, they have the added benefit of being in the same system and having a standardized approach to collaborative care.

Defining Telehealth Applications

Telehealth technology can include a wide variety of services, including medical records, appointment management, remote monitoring, and imaging management. These services are beneficial for stroke management as they give patients the ability to quickly identify important information and ensure they are following their recovery plan.

Telehealth applications are also beneficial for medical professionals who work together on patient recovery and chronic disease management. With a centralized platform to update and review patient data, providers can modify care plans to the patient’s stroke symptoms and improve outcomes.

Key Features and Benefits of Telehealth Applications for Stroke Care

Continuous Monitoring and Real-Time Feedback

Using remote monitoring devices, healthcare professionals can have constant access to a patient’s real-time health data. Connected devices can monitor a patient’s health stats, including heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels, and sleep patterns. With consistent data, providers can identify trends and verify if a patient’s condition is improving with data-driven methods.

Remote monitoring technology can also send notifications and alerts when a patient’s stats meet a defined threshold. This can alert the patient, provider, and any emergency contacts that medical intervention is necessary and to quickly respond. The ability to catch medical emergencies early can make a significant difference in patient outcomes.

Accessibility to Specialist Care

Many stroke patients can experience barriers to accessing specialized care, whether due to proximity or mobility. Patients in rural areas can live hours away from stroke specialists, making regular appointments difficult to manage, especially if a patient has trouble securing transportation. With a telehealth application, patients can maintain contact with their provider, including private messaging and video call appointments.

Reducing Necessity for Hospital Readmissions

Healthcare organizations are always searching for ways to reduce hospital readmissions, as it puts strain on the healthcare staff and can prolong a patient’s recovery period. With telehealth intervention, patients can be screened by a medical professional to help them determine if they need to go to the emergency department. With these screenings, hospitals can reduce the number of patients being readmitted while helping the patient get the necessary care.

Rehabilitation and Recovery

A stroke recovery plan can include a combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech rehabilitation, and cognitive rehabilitation. Telehealth applications can be used to help supplement patient care with practices and exercises that can be completed at home.

For example, a physical therapist can use telehealth technology to share weekly exercises that will improve a patient’s outcome. Applications can also send patients notification reminders to complete their exercises, or prompt the patient to record themselves so the provider can monitor their progress.

Promoting Self-Care and Independence

Telehealth applications help patients take an active role in their health by giving them direct access to health information and appointment details while promoting self-management.

Healthcare providers can create a library of trusted resources in a telehealth application that provides patients with educational materials and articles on health-promoting behaviors. This reduces the risk of the patient trusting unreliable information found online that could have a negative impact on their stroke recovery outcomes.

The best way to promote positive stroke outcomes is for patients to attend every appointment scheduled throughout their recovery. With the ability to schedule and monitor appointments, patients can ensure they are able to either attend them in person or meet with their provider on a secure video call.

Real-World Impact

Reducing Time in Diagnosis and Treatment

As mentioned, stroke patients require a collaborative treatment plan built around their stroke severity and symptoms. Medical professionals must work together to perform a systematic review to identify the symptoms and the therapies and rehabilitations required for the patient to recover and improve their quality of life. If the patient is at risk of having strokes in the future, the providers will also build a care plan for secondary stroke prevention.

With the amount of collaboration among providers required to build a treatment plan, utilizing a telehealth application for communication, viewing shared documents, and accessing patient data can speed up the process. When it comes to stroke diagnosis and treatment plans, the quicker it can get started, the better the patient outcomes are.

Improving Outcomes and Quality of Life

Telehealth applications allow patients to communicate with providers outside of in-person appointments, which makes it easier to make adjustments to a treatment plan. When a treatment plan can be adjusted to a patient’s condition and lifestyle, they can improve their own health outcomes and overall quality of life. Stroke recovery is a long road, and using telehealth technology to make it manageable can greatly improve a patient’s quality of life.

Cost Efficiency in Stroke Care

Stroke recovery requires frequent appointments across various specialties for a long period of time. Between the cost of travel and appointments after health insurance, it can add up to a significant expense. Telehealth can be used for appointments that do not require in-person intervention, which can reduce the overall cost of care.

Work With Geneca Today

Geneca has over 25 years of experience creating and maintaining high-quality, reliable custom software solutions. Our partners choose us because we:

• Understand software and business, including industry processes and regulations

• Use cutting-edge technology paired with trusted, evergreen tools

• Communicate changes, progress, and expectations through every step of the development process

• Honor your budget and timeline from the start

If you’re ready to implement telehealth software to support stroke care, contact us today!