Fortschritte in der geriatrischen Betreuung durch Telemedizin

Tele-health-care in the elderly living in nursing home: the first Sicilian multimodal approach

BACKGROUND

The continued aging of the population is affecting the health of the industrialized countries, with an increasing burden for the healthcare system. Thus, during the last decade, we assisted to relevant progress in the medical treatment and rehabilitation techniques and devices, including the development of telemedicine for geriatric care.

AIM

To demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel tele-health-care model allowing a better management of elderly living in nursing homes.

METHODS

Fifty-nine elderly patients (19 males and 40 females; mean age 79.1 (±9.2), were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group that performed a proper telemonitoring with a multimodal approach (including monitoring of the vital signs and neurological/psychological counseling), and the control group, which underwent standard in-home nursing care. Neurobehavioral symptoms and quality of life were assessed in both the groups at baseline, and after the telecare protocol's end.

RESULTS

The experimental group had a statistically significant reduction in Geriatric Depression Scale (p < 0.01) and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (p < 0.05) scores, and an improvement in their quality of life. Moreover, mean blood pressure and heart rate were lower in the experimental than in the control group (p < 0.05), and admission to health care services was higher in the control than in the experimental group (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Telemedicine can be considered as an important tool in improving health and quality of life in the elderly living in nursing homes, and potentially reducing healthcare service access, hospitalization, and costs.

[Fundus screening by medical technicians]

Ocular fundus photography allows detection of both ocular and systemic diseases. This study investigated the efficacy of a broad screening in a department of internal medicine using nonmydriatic digital fundus photography. For 8 weeks a medical technician was trained in using the camera as well as interpreting the photographs. The medical technician and an ophthalmologist evaluated the fundus photographs separately by using a self-developed questionnaire. The fundus camera was user-friendly and after several weeks of adjustment and practical application the medical technician was able to detect the majority of pathological fundus photographs. Out of 218 patients examined 148 (68%) were identified as pathological by the medical technician and 163 (75%) by the ophthalmologist (p = 0.0003). The medical technician missed 15 (7%) patients. Furthermore the diagnoses made by the medical technician were faulty. In summary an ophthalmological screening by a medical technician is feasible but the diagnosis still remains the responsibility of ophthalmologists. Such a compromise could facilitate the examination of a large number of patients and disclose previously unrecognized diseases.

Relationship of systemic blood pressure with ocular perfusion pressure and intraocular pressure of glaucoma patients in telemedical home monitoring

Background

We evaluated the relation of systemic blood pressure with intraday variations in ocular perfusion pressure and intraocular pressure in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma in a telemedical home monitoring scenario.

Material/Methods

In the project Teletonometry Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (TTMV) patients were equipped with a home monitoring system for 24-hour self-measurements of intraocular pressure and blood pressure for a period of six months. All measurements were transmitted via telephone modem to an electronic patient record. Ocular perfusion pressure (OPP) was automatically calculated from self-measurements of intraocular pressure (IOP), systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) using the equation: OPP=[2/3*(2/3*DBP+1/3*SBP)]–IOP. We present the temporal characteristics of 70 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma based on 3282 self-measurements.

Results

The diurnal ocular perfusion pressure trend showed four characteristic phases (7am – 12am, 12am – 6pm, 6pm – 10pm, and 10pm – 7am). Between 7am and 12am ocular perfusion pressure and simultaneously systolic and diastolic blood pressure were significantly depressed compared to all other phases (p<0.05) whereas intraocular pressure showed no significant shifting. Instead intraocular pressure was significantly depressed between 6pm and 10pm (p<0.05) where ocular perfusion pressure reached the highest intraday values.

Conclusions

We found that ocular perfusion pressure in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma showed remarkable circadian fluctuations. A significant decrease in the morning was associated with significantly depressed systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels. In addition we observed normal intraocular pressure values in the morning but a significant decrease in the evening which did not affect ocular perfusion pressure. These conclusions strengthen the evidence that systemic blood pressure fundamentally influences ocular circulation and consequently glaucoma progression.

Health-enabling technologies for the elderly--an overview of services based on a literature review

BACKGROUND

Services for the elderly based on health-enabling technologies promise to contribute significantly to the efficiency and effectiveness of future health care. Due to this promise, over the last years the scientific community has designed a complex variety of these valuable innovations. A systematic overview of the developed services would help to better understand their opportunities and limitations.

OBJECTIVE

To obtain a systematic overview of services for the elderly based on health-enabling technologies and to identify archetypical service categories.

METHODS

We conducted a literature review using PubMed and retrieved 1447 publications. We stepwise reduced this list to 27 key publications that describe typical service archetypes.

RESULTS

We present six archetypical service categories, namely handling adverse conditions, assessing state of health, consultation and education, motivation and feedback, service ordering and social inclusion and describe their implementation in current research projects.

The diurnal variation of intraocular pressure--the most important symptom for early detection and follow-up of the glaucomas

Hans Goldmann in 1958 emphasized the importance of the diurnal curve of intraocular pressure for very early detection of glaucoma. He stressed from the investigations of Leydhecker (1959) that there is a 10-year interval between early detection of chronic glaucoma and the first signs of neuronal defects or even later, functional problems. Roberto Sampaolesi (1974) finally has proven the important innovation from his great number of diurnal curves. Of course, a precise diurnal curve (Sampaolesi asked for eight measurements) is almost impossible by the ophthalmologist's office or even within the hospital. We need the cooperation of the patient (like we do this in blood pressure measurement or even diabetes control). This requires an easy-to-handle "self-tonometer", which allows measurement at any time of the day, even in different positions of the patient's body. Due to some difficult technical problems to be solved, it took until 1988 before the "automatic self-tonometer" was available. This was first tried in three space missions (Spacelab D1, 1985; Spacelab D2, 1993; German-Russian MIR-Mission 1992) allowing for the first time to register the enormous increase of intraocular and intracranial pressure after entering into microgravity. Some years later, the first instrument for clinical application was available, allowing a large series of dense diurnal curves, confirming Goldmann's and Sampaolesi's hypothesis. The technical solution, application, and results with this new instrument are described.

[Possibilities and limitations of telemedical home monitoring in ophthalmology]

For medical professionals, home monitoring represents an innovative health service for remote patient care: The patient may remain in his or her domestic environment and continue normal activities. The physician can also, through technical and organizational integration, provide medical attendance from his or her usual working environment. All in all, in the near future home monitoring can help provide sufficient health services while also enabling medical resources to be used more effectively. The patient may benefit from individually optimized treatment and active integration into medical care. The better we manage the technical, organizational, medical, legal, and economic challenges of telemedicine, the better we can minimize the limitations of telemedical home monitoring. Other existing subjective concerns will be eliminated only if telemedical concepts are adapted to the specific needs of affected patients and physicians.

Selbstmedikation mit Lokalanästhetika durch Glaukompatienten bei der Teletonometrie

BACKGROUND

Self-tonometry, a supplementary measurement of the intraocular pressure in ophthalmology by glaucoma patients using an automatic tonometer, will become more and more important in the future. As long as the self-tonometry has to work in the contact modus with the ocular surface, home application of a topical anaesthetic by the glaucoma patient will be a requirement for a successful measurement. So far no severe problems within this controlled self-medication have been seen. Nevertheless, public health authorities believe patient health is put at high risk by the application of local anaesthetics during self-tonometry. As there are no clinical studies of the health care, we evaluated the local tolerability of a topical anaesthetic in line with self-tonometry employing a modified tonometer OCUTON S.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A total of 100 glaucoma patients participated in a prospective clinical study of the routine clinical service in which each was monitored for 1 year. The telemonitoring involved self-tonometry for at least 6 months in every case and Ocuton S Proparakain-POS 0.5% eyedrops (proxymetacaine-HCl) were applied by the probands before every measurement of the intraocular pressure with a modified self-tonometer. Information regarding the local tolerability of the topical anaesthetic was analysed using a standardised questionnaire. The intensity of the following subjective symptoms was listed in separate visual analogue scales for: lacrimation, burning, foreign body sensation, mucus aggregation, pruritus and pain.

RESULTS

Information from 83 glaucoma patients on local tolerability of proparacaine eyedrops could be analysed. For several reasons no data could be gathered from 17 probands, which were refusal to complete the questionnaire, cancelled participation and, in two test persons, there emerged an allergic reaction (local eyelid redness and swelling) which necessitated a change to a different topical anaesthetic. In all other participants the application was carried out without any significant local or systemic symptoms or side-effects. Immediately after application of the eyedrops 36.1% of the test persons suffered a minor conjunctival hyperaemia which eased off within 1 h in 20.4% of these patients. Of the interviewed glaucoma patients 91.5% judged the single symptoms on the visual analogue scale between zero and medium intensity. The severest effects, according to the subjective evaluation, were felt in symptoms of burning with a score of 94 and lacrimation graded 96. The least intensity was established in the symptom of mucus aggregation where 72.3% rated this symptom in the visual analogue scale between 0 and 10. The other symptoms pruritus, feeling of pressure and foreign body sensation hardly differed in subjective ratings.

CONCLUSION

A self-medication with topical anaesthetics on undamaged ocular surfaces for self-tonometry purposes can be performed by glaucoma patients without a high risk potential. However, the application presupposes that routine ophthalmological examinations are carried out according to the ophthalmological associations' recommendations. Therefore, medical care concepts which integrate self-tonometry into routine ophthalmological services and comply with the complex requirements of a modern glaucoma management should be applied more often.