New remote monitoring system to be tested in MS patients in rehab

Datos Health, a remote care automation company, is collaborating with the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, in Illinois, on a study that will gauge the effectiveness of remote therapy monitoring in patients with various conditions and disorders, including multiple sclerosis (MS).

The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, based in Chicago, provides physical medicine and rehabilitation for adults and children with complex and severe conditions. In this new outpatient study, it will use Datos Health’s remote care Open Care platform for treating patients.

The flexible Open Care system includes a Design Studio, patient CareApp, and Care Team Dashboard.

“The research study will allow us to determine the feasibility of remote therapeutic monitoring for clinicians and patients alike,” Miriam Rafferty, PhD, director of implementation science at Shirley Ryan, said in a Datos press release.

“It also will enable us to study how remote monitoring can enable data-driven decision making,” Rafferty added.

In addition to people with MS, the investigation will include stroke and Parkinson’s disease patients as well as those with mild traumatic brain injury or concussion, and individuals with lower extremity and chronic lower back pain.

Datos will use patients’ personal devices — fitness trackers and smart watches — or clinic-supplied wearable technology to help care teams remotely monitor each person’s exertion level.

Assessments will include the number of daily steps taken, vigorous activity, and the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion scale, which rates exertion and breathlessness during physical activity. Other metrics such as heart rate also may be used.

The collective monitoring is expected to provide researchers with consistent comparisons across all devices and conditions and will enable real-time care team intervention.

We see potential in therapeutic monitoring to improve long-term outcomes, and we’re looking forward to evaluating the results of this study.

Datos Health’s platform permits healthcare providers such as the Shirley Ryan staff to tailor remote care programs to both their and their patients’ needs. The solution also allows clinicians to tweak workflows on the fly, with modifications instantly translated into the patient CareApp and Care Team Dashboard.

The CareApp is where patients log their activity, while the dashboard is used by clinicians to view patient data and trends, and receive alerts that a condition is worsening and may need intervention.

“We see potential in therapeutic monitoring to improve long-term outcomes, and we’re looking forward to evaluating the results of this study,” said Uri Bettesh, Datos Health founder and CEO.

When the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab opened in 2017, it became the first translational rehabilitation hospital in which clinicians, researchers, innovators, and technologists work in the same space to discover novel care approaches and translate research in real time.

Datos Health’s flexible Design Studio permits clinicians to fine-tune care workflows according to their needs and protocols, either by creating new remote care programs or by leveraging existing protocols. Subsequently, such workflows are instantly transmitted into patient CareApps, empowering patients to independently manage part of their care journey.