Now, Manipal Hospitals to monitor patients post discharge through Fitbit

Manipal Hospitals said that the service would be voluntary for its patients and offered free of cost for the time-being

India’s second largest hospital chain Bangalore headquartered Manipal Hospitals is planning to offer digital patient monitoring technology after someone is discharged from the hospital after a serious intervention, like a surgery.

Even after someone is discharged after a cardiac surgery, the hospital continues to monitor his vitals and nudges the patient for medicine and exercise regimen compliance now using Google-Cloud and Fitbit’s wearable technology. This would be done for a period of two to three months, and Manipal says that the pilot has shown that it improves recovery time for patients. With 7600 beds across 27 hospitals, Manipal aims to serve at least 7000-8000 patients a year through this tech-intervention.

Claiming this to be the first such initiative in the country, Manipal Hospitals, which plans to offer this as a part of its overall digital services strategy, said that the service would be voluntary for its patients and offered free of cost for the time-being.

One has to return the fitbit wearable device after the 3-month monitoring period. Manipal is buying these devices and a backend team would monitor the vitals of the patient through the mobile application. “The only requirement from the patient side is that he or she needs to have a smart-phone and has to sync the app with the device thrice a day. The technology would not only monitor his vitals like pulse rate, oxygen saturation, ECG, movement etc, but would also give a reminder when one needs to take his or her daily medicines, thereby ensuring higher compliance,” explained Dilip Jose, MD and CEO, Manipal Hospitals.

“We have seen that patients with knee replacement surgeries recover about two weeks faster once discharged from the hospital who are using this digital intervention. Doctors can monitor the vitals of a post cerebral stroke patient, and call him back to the hospital if needed. The system gives an alarm at the back-end if the patient vitals are not as desired,” he added.

Jose added that this is a strategic partnership with ConnectedLife built with Google Cloud and Fitbit. It would be used primarily to stay connected with patients post surgeries like total knee replacement, angioplasty, cardiac bypass surgery, and other high-risk surgeries.