EXPERIENCE OF REMOTE MONITORING IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
Background. Remote follow-up of patients with chronic non-communicable diseases is an increasingly popular and one of the most fast-growing telemedicine branches, mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic. There are certain premises for a wider and more routine use of telemedicine, one of them being coverage of telemedical consultations by the government insurance program. Aim. To test a remote self-control program for patients with chronic non-infectious diseases who are followed-up by the doctors of the rheumatology department of the Moscow Regional Research Clinical Institute n.a. M.F. Vladimirsky, and to assess patient adherence to this program. Materials and methods. We enrolled 120 patients with rheumatic diseases. The type of telemedicine technology used was a remote self-control program, where patients keep track of the doctor's prescriptions and recommendations, how they are feeling, and disease symptoms persistence. Results. The mean age of patients was 46.8±2.3 years; follow-up time ranged from 1 to 7 months with the mean of 96.2±9.3 days. Mean number of drug prescriptions per patient per day was 7.58 (max - 26 prescriptions, min -2 prescriptions). Patients adherence to the studied self-control program was 91.7%. Conclusion. Patients with chronic non-infectious diseases, requiring regular follow-up in outpatient settings, benefit from the use of telemedicine technology allowing for self-control, drug prescriptions tracking and motivating for self-education about the disease.