America’s patient population is undergoing a vast shift. People are living longer, with more chronic conditions than times past. The homes of patients are becoming a more significant part of the care ecosystem, where patients (and caregivers) must manage, monitor and respond to changes in their health. The survey results listed below point to the increasing burden of caring for chronic disease patients on caregivers and healthcare organizations. We’ve also included research that illustrates the impact of advances in technology on healthcare’s expansion into the home.

These studies validate conjectures that technology can enable chronic disease patients to better manage their disease and prevent or delay the shift of patients to acute and long term care settings. When patient engagement apps integrate patients and caregivers into the care continuum, the financial and emotional burden of delivering care to chronic disease patients is alleviated.
 

The Changing Patient Population

1.  Roughly 10,000 baby boomers per day will turn 65 over the next 15 years.

Source:Pew Research Center

2.  Nearly 90 percent of people over age 65 want to stay in their home for as long as possible.

Source: AARP

3.  80 percent of Americans 65 and over believe their current residence is where they will always live.

Source: AARP

4.  In 2005, 1 out of every 2 adults had at least one chronic illness.

Source: CDC

The Rising Need for Caregivers

5.  Family and professional caregivers are now present in 1 of every 5 households.

Source: CDC

6.  29% of U.S. adults, or roughly 65.7 million Americans, engage in informal care.

Source: Journal of Health Communication

7.  Number of American adults expected to act as remote caregiver is expected to double in next 15 years.

Source: Journal of Health Communication

8.  17% of U.S. caregivers report fair or poor health, compared with 13% of the general adult population.

Source: National Alliance for Caregiving

9.  Caregivers experience more depression and stress as well as poorer subjective and objective physical health than non-caregivers.

Source: Oxford Journals

10.  45% of workers will have elder care responsibilities by 2019.

Source: AARP

The Cost of Caring for Chronic Disease Patients

11.  More than 75% of all health care costs are due to chronic conditions.

Source: CDC

12.  People with diagnosed diabetes, on average, have medical expenditures approximately 2.3 times higher than what expenditures would be in the absence of diabetes.

Source: American Diabetes Association

13.  Seven chronic diseases – cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness – have a total impact on the economy of $1.3 trillion annually.

Source: Milken Institute

Using Digital Health to Deliver Home Healthcare

14.  People with chronic conditions receive only 56% of recommended preventive health care services.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

15.  2.3 million, or nearly 20 percent, of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries were readmitted to the hospital after 30 days over a one-year period, largely because of gaps in follow-up care.

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

16.  The Visiting Nurses Association of Western Pennsylvania reduced hospital readmission rates of about 30 percent to less than 10 percent by using telehealth to remotely monitor patients

Source: The Joint Commission

17.  In a UK based study, over 1,000 patients with COPD and/or chronic heart failure were enrolled in a home telehealth monitoring program for six to nine months. Contrary to speculation that older patients are technology averse, 100% of patients surveyed—2/3 of whom were above age 70—from the program felt “somewhat or very confident” that they could manage their own health.

Source: British Journal of Healthcare Computing

18.  Although the majority of healthcare networks only monitor stroke patients for 24 hours, multiple studies are showing that monitoring patients for 30 days or longer can provide evidence of atrial defibrillation that goes undetected if monitoring only lasts 24 hours.

Source: mHealth news

19.  Few would’ve thought years ago that a text message could save lives, and yet a clinical trial conducted across the globe found that remotely monitoring patients with implantable cardiac devices reduced their mortality rate by 50 percent and improved their clinical status by nearly 10 percent.

Source: Mobihealth news

20.  Prescription adherence of HIV patients who were given a secure messaging mobile app increased in this study.

Source: mHealth news

When patient engagement apps integrate patients and caregivers into the care continuum, the financial and emotional burden of delivering care to chronic disease patients is alleviated. Healthcare organizations and providers have much to gain by engaging patients and caregivers with remote monitoring apps that can securely deliver clinical information and, in emergency situations, facilitate fast communication with clinical care teams. When patients and caregivers, physicians and other clinicians are given access to the data these tools collect, they can make coordinated care decisions before patients experience emergency health situations.