Audio-Only Remote Patient Monitoring Boosts Access for Black Patients

mHealth Intelligence: Audio-Only Remote Patient Monitoring Boosts Access for Black Patients

According to a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, remote patient monitoring programs that offered telehealth-based, audio-only monitoring in addition to application-based programs could help to reduce barriers to care, particularly for Black and low-income individuals. Researchers implemented a remote patient monitoring program for COVID patients through this study, where patients had the option to choose between the app-based program or telephone-based program upon enrollment. Among patients who used the app-based program, Black patients had a lower retention rate than white patients, while all patients in the telephone-based program saw similar rates. The telephone arm of the program also had a retention rate of 70 percent, versus 54 percent for the app-based program.