Bendigo Health has become the first hospital in Australia to use a new telehealth platform to care for people with COVID-19 or suspected cases of the illness from their homes.
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The cloud-based system, developed by Siemens Healthineers, gives doctors and nurses daily updates on patients' symptoms and vitals so they can monitor their conditions from afar.
Professor Marc Budge is leading the program at Bendigo Health.
He said he had been talking with Siemens since late last year to develop the technology to monitor people with chronic disease from their homes.
But the arrival of coronavirus saw the company adapt and fast-track the development of the platform to bring it into use for COVID-19 patients.
Professor Budge said the first patients - people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and close contacts - were loaded onto the system this week and the hospital received their first inputs from them on Friday.
The system involves patients logging onto the system each day and recording any symptoms they experience.
Those who require more monitoring use thermometers and pulse oximeters to record their temperature and blood oxygen levels.
Patients and their health practitioners are also able to communicate via the platform.
By doing this, doctors and nurses can check on whether their patients' conditions are improving or deteriorating, and adapt care accordingly.
Professor Budge said the system helped protect healthcare workers from physical contact with people with COVID-19, preserved personal protection equipment, and kept more hospital beds open.
"It keeps a very close eye on those with COVID, without them having to come into hospital," he said.
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The system will also be used to monitor people with chronic illnesses from their homes.
Professor Budge said this would help keep these patients as well as possible in their own homes, without them having to come into hospital.
People with chronic conditions, he said, showed warning signs in the lead-up to more serious health stumbles; by monitoring them, their doctors would be able to intervene before these occurred.
Again, Professor Budge said, this would save hospital beds.
He said the system was limitless, as the data was stored on a secure cloud-based server.
"It has a life after COVID-19," he said.
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Professor Budge congratulated Siemens for fast-tracking the program, which would ordinarily have taken several months to a year to develop.
Another three sites around the world would deploy it initially, he said.
"The unique application of this telemedicine platform represents the future of managing increased demands on the healthcare system," Siemens Healthineers ANZ managing director Michael Shaw said.
Bendigo Health's adoption of the new platform follows its successful Geri-Connect service, which is used across the Loddon Mallee and is expanding into the Hume area.
Professor Budge said Geri-Connect was a service that provided telehealth assessments and consultations to almost 60 residential aged care facilities across the region and a number of smaller health centres.
He said the service, which started in 2017, meant the number of people seen had grown significantly, despite no increase in resources.
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Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
