Telemetry and telecare in patients with respiratory diseases

Information technology (IT) plays a crucial role in helping health professionals improve their clinical practice, disease management, treatment strategy and patient follow-up, aiming at anthropocentric health care. Its applications include detection, surveillance, testing and patient treatment, as well as the IT education of medical, nursing and paramedical personnel. Telecare (also referred as telehealth) includes patient usage of telecommunication technology and transmission of biological data and medical signals to a health care centre for specialist consultation. The services provided are based on "smart devices" adapted to the needs of patients. Certain patient subgroups, such as the elderly and those with chronic diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (CO PD), are in great need of continuing contact with the health care team. Introduction of IT in the primary health care (PHC) setting can improve patient access to care, and chronic respiratory diseases are a good example of telecare application. Most telecare programmes continue to be operated alongside the face to face scheduled visits.