Mobile home visit

Project field

Health and support

Partners

Klinikum Friedrichshafen, Philips, Deutsche Telekom / T-Systems

Mobile home visits by the medical staff

Brief description

The mobile home visit is the first telemedical system in Germany that provides interactive care for patients suffering from chronic heart problems. With mobile home visits, T-City and the system provider, Philips, enable physicians in private practice and hospitals to provide patients suffering from heart problems with medical care and therapy in their own homes. At regular intervals, patients send their vital details such as blood pressure, heart-beat frequency or body weight to the hospital via their TV. To do so, the TV is integrated into the telematics infrastructure of doctors’ practices and hospitals. To operate the monitoring system which is set up specifically for each sick person, patients require a set-top box for the TV, broadband access, a digital set of scales and a blood pressure monitor. The scales and blood pressure monitor transmit the data wirelessly via a secure network to the hospital where it is automatically analyzed by a computer. If the data gives rise to concern or indicates anything unusual in the patients’ state of health, the system immediately contacts the medical staff so they can issue the relevant corrections and instructions. An integrated care contract has been concluded with the first health insurance companies, enabling doctors and hospitals to obtain payment for their services.

Project aim

The telemedical system is meant to promote patients' responsibility for themselves in their therapy and to interactively support the patients' acceptance of their illness and insight into their treatment and thus to increase their quality of life significantly.

Benefits

Thanks to remote data transfer, doctors can offer comprehensive and continuous care to their patients. As a result, seriously ill people feel more secure without having to go to the doctor or hospital every day. In addition, the private environment has a positive effect on wellbeing and, therefore, on the recovery of the patients.

Project status

The telemedical system has been in use in the T-City Friedrichshafen and the Lake Constance/Upper Schwabia region since 2008 to support patients suffering from heart problems It is based on an integrated care contract between the health insurance companies (at present DAK, BARMER Ersatzkasse, BKK ZF&Partner, BKK MTU Friedrichshafen), Friedrichshafen clinic, Hausärzteverein Friedrichshafen e.V. (Friedrichshafen association of physicians), Ärztenetz Bodenseekreis (Lake Constance regional network of general physicians), and statutory health insurance-authorized physicians in private practice.

The working group on city and regional research of the Geographic Institute at Bonn University completed an evaluation of the Mobile Home Visit project at the end of 2010. One important result: Patients supported by Mobile Home Visit really do feel a greater degree of security and see this as improving their quality of life. For more information on the T-City support research, go to www.forschung-tcity.de.