Metabolic syndrome is a relatively new health condition affecting nearly one-third of all adults in the United States, and is a potential precursor to life-threatening diseases such as diabetes and congestive heart failure. Because of its wide scope of severity and multitude of contributing factors, metabolic syndrome can prove difficult to treat, especially when limited to the resources of traditional healthcare practices.
Telemonitoring programs, because of their ease of accessibility and approach to constant health evaluation, are perfect avenues for treating the five risk factors (high blood glucose, low HDL cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, and waistline obesity) associated with metabolic syndrome. Each of these factors are uniquely complex and require specific needs and methods for treatment. However, through a combination of devices, technologies, and individualized coaching, telemonitoring can address these factors on a singular level, greatly improving – and even reversing – the devastating symptoms found in so many metabolic syndrome patients.
Individualized Coaching
Telemonitoring is not merely a technology – or group of technologies – aimed at improving healthcare procedures. Rather, remote patient monitoring can be more aptly characterized as a methodology; a modernized approach for advancing healthcare practices and techniques through adhering to the growing demands of today’s patients and healthcare facilities. Telemonitoring is a total remodeling of the way in which individuals and organizations approach and redefine the way healthcare is administered. Over the past several years, telemonitoring has been evolving to encompass every aspect of the healthcare industry; employing methods and tools to handle all nuanced situations and never-ending streams of emerging obstacles. One of these tools – born from a growing demand for increased patient education – is individualized coaching, and its applications for metabolic syndrome patients are unparalleled.
Metabolic syndrome is classified as the combination of any three of the five aforementioned risk factors. As all five of the possible contributing factors of metabolic syndrome are primarily affected by poor lifestyle choices, virtual coaching provides a much-needed means by which patients can better understand and more effectively treat their conditions. Through remote patient monitoring, healthcare professionals can connect with their patients individually to provide education and tips for healthier living. Using devices and systems specifically designed for remote monitoring, patients can work with their providers through one-on-one consultations to collect, transfer, and evaluate health data pertinent to their circumstances. Through coaching, healthcare professionals will address their patients’ needs and concerns, discuss treatment options, and manage medications to improve overall health.
Remote patient monitoring was created around the principles of increased communication, and a well established remote patient monitoring program helps honor this philosophy with the programs and services it develops and the outcomes it delivers. Through a comprehensive metabolic syndrome management program, coaching, education, and close medical monitoring, a health call center can drastically change the way organizations and medical professionals administer care.
