Post Discharge Tele-monitoring of COVID-19 Survivors for Long-Term Impacts and Point-of-Care

为了应对COVID-19大流行，医院需要最大限度地提高床位利用率，并尽可能缩短患者的住院时间。鉴于这些限制，医生既无法调查COVID-19的长期影响，也无法优化医院以外的长期治疗。医生也没有时间让病人在住院期间保持活动和清醒，从而导致更长的恢复期和进一步的并发症。我们建议制定远程监测解决方案，对COVID-19幸存者进行长期监测。这种解决方案将有助于减少因患者并发症而可能住院的次数，为医生和政策制定者等各利益攸关方提供有关COVID-19长期影响的宝贵见解，并改善患者护理和治疗，从而节省大量医疗保健成本。

To confront the COVID-19 pandemic hospitals need to maximize bed availability and minimize the duration of patients' stay as much as possible. Given the constraints, physicians are neither able to investigate the long-term effects of COVID-19 nor able to optimize extended treatments beyond the hospital. Physicians also do not have time to keep patients mobile and lucid during their hospital stays, resulting in longer recovery periods and further complications for patients. We propose the development of a tele-monitoring solution for the long-term monitoring of COVID-19 survivors. Such a solution will help save significant healthcare costs by reducing the number of plausible future hospitalizations due to patient complications, providing valuable insights to various stakeholders from doctors to policymakers on the long-term effects of COVID-19, and improving patient care and treatment. Using our team's existing bio-instrumentation technologies and years of experience, we propose to develop a custom-designed miniaturized monitoring system capable of recording pulse oximetry (blood's oxygen level), blood pressure, heart rate and breathing and swallowing sounds. This solution will be non-invasive, easy to implement and will not require an assistant physically present. The system will be augmented by regular videoconferencing sessions with a medical practitioner. The frequency of the connection can be modified depending on the patient's condition and medical history in consultation with our team's physician. By running the proposed project on a large scale, the expected outcomes will be: 1) collection of reliable and objective information on the long-term impacts of COVID-19, 2) developing an all-in-one technology for future applications, 3) collection of objective and actionable information that can be used to optimize care and treatment plans for patients, 4) better care and treatment for all strata of society regardless of the remoteness of the residence, and 5) improved mental health and recovery of patients.