Wearable Technologies and Telehealth in Care Management for Chronic Illness
Telehealth is the use of technology for remote patient monitoring and care. Wearables are small electronic devices that can seamlessly collect data about a patient for prolonged periods of time and support the implementation of telemedicine in the patient's natural environment. In a reality where patients are becoming older and sicker, medicine is becoming more and more a multidisciplinary team work and healthcare resources are limited, telehealth holds promise as a way to improve patient care while cutting on costs. It may improve coordination between care providers, allow for bringing top notch expertise to remote, rural settings, provide a more complete picture of the patient's condition and support independent living of the elderly and patients with chronic diseases. In this chapter, we review some of the related technology and application and portrait how they may be integrated in the near future in the healthcare delivery system.