A Mayo Clinic program used in-home technology to monitor oxygen levels, vital signs and COVID-19 symptoms, and relied on a centralized virtual care team to manage patients.
Cancer patients with COVID-19 were less likely to need hospitalization if they received care from home using remote patient monitoring, than were cancer patients with COVID-19 who did not, a new Mayo Clinic study finds.
"We evaluated 224 Mayo Clinic patients with cancer who were found to have COVID-19 through standardized screening prior to receiving cancer treatment, or due to symptoms or close exposure," said study senior author Tufia Haddad, MD, a Mayo Clinic medical oncologist.
Researchers followed the patients March 18–July 31, 2020. The study results were presented on Friday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Mayo at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic built a remote patient monitoring program for its COVID-19 patients who were at risk for severe illness.
The program used in-home technology to monitor oxygen levels, vital signs and COVID-19 symptoms, and relied on a centralized virtual care team to manage patients. Haddad said the program had served more than 8,000 patients in rural and urban locations across 41 states by November 2020.
Among cancer / COVID patients who did not need hospitalization, those monitored remotely were significantly less likely to require hospitalization, compared with those who were not monitored, the study found.
"After balancing the two groups of patients who were or were not managed by the remote monitoring program for factors known to impact COVID-19 outcomes, such as old age, male gender and obesity, there was a 78% reduction in the risk of hospitalization (a 2.8% risk for patients on the remote monitoring program, compared to 13% for patients not on the program) attributed to the remote monitoring program," Haddad said.
In addition, cancer patients in the remote care program who subsequently were hospitalized saw fewer hospitalizations of more than one week, and fewer ICU admissions and deaths.
"It is possible that our results were due to early detection of adverse symptoms and vital sign trends that enabled earlier care interventions to alter the trajectory of disease," Haddad said, adding that further research is needed to confirm the study's results.
“It is possible that our results were due to early detection of adverse symptoms and vital sign trends that enabled earlier care interventions to alter the trajectory of disease.”
Tufia Haddad, MD, Mayo Clinic.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Mayo at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic built a remote patient monitoring program for its COVID-19 patients who were at risk for severe illness.
The program had served more than 8,000 patients in rural and urban locations across 41 states by November 2020.
There was a 78% reduction in the risk of hospitalization -- a 2.8% risk for patients on the remote monitoring program, compared to 13% for patients not on the program -- attributed to the remote monitoring program.