16 Feb, 2023
The COVID-19 lockdown emphasised the need for innovative, successful and convenient remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions. Aparito’s Atom5™ smartphone app was deployed for oncology patients in a proof-of-concept project for tailored remote monitoring during the pandemic. The project offered valuable insight into the practicalities of implementing RPM for different patient populations. This was achieved by employing video assessments, patient self-reporting and telemedicine through the Atom5™ app, teamed with the Garmin vívosmart® 4 for activity tracking.1
The project took place in April 2020, coinciding with the first COVID-19 peak in the U.K. Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital and Aparito (a global health tech company specialising in digitising clinical trials) worked together to deploy a remote monitoring solution for oncology patients who were at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 complications and were unable to keep clinic appointments due to shielding.
Patients at the hospital who agreed to participate in the study were given a Garmin vívosmart® 4 fitness tracker and access to the Atom5™ app. The participants completed a COVID symptoms checker daily using the app, while the wearable device continuously monitored vital signs, including heart rate1, Pulse Ox2 blood oxygen saturation and physical activity. These robust health metrics were captured and processed through an integration of the Garmin Health SDK with Atom5™, allowing clinicians to monitor patients’ data remotely and in real time.
With each clinical trial comes different requirements — by choosing Garmin, researchers are able to specifically configure devices and the chosen Garmin Health ecosystem to collect the relevant health metrics for each project. Dr Elin Haf Davies, CEO and founder of Aparito, said, “We chose Garmin due to the integrity of their Health SDK. Being able to connect Garmin devices directly to our applications ensures we get access to raw data rather than relying on black box metrics and algorithms. This access to patient data was crucial for us.”
The 2020 project successfully demonstrated that patients can be more easily and safely monitored at home using the above technologies, and feedback was positive — from both patients and oncology clinicians. The study provided insight into how a digitised approach can contribute to both a supportive and a preventive public health approach for vulnerable populations during a pandemic. Evidence also shows the predictive value of large, patient-generated data in anticipating deterioration, optimising care and guiding treatment changes in health care in general. Future collaboration between Aparito and Garmin is already planned on many projects, using either the Garmin vívosmart® 4, vívosmart® 5 or Venu® 2 for vital data collection.
Want to learn more about Aparito? Then join the next Garmin Health Research Webinar in March 2023.
2This is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition; see Garmin.com/ataccuracy. Pulse Ox not available in all countries.
