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

为了应对新冠肺炎大流行，医院需要最大限度地增加床位供应，尽可能减少患者的住院时间。鉴于这些限制，医生既无法调查新冠肺炎的长期疗效，也无法优化医院以外的延伸治疗。医生也没有时间让患者在住院期间保持活动和清醒，导致更长的恢复期和更多的并发症。我们建议开发一种远程监控解决方案，用于对新冠肺炎幸存者的长期监控。这样的解决方案将通过减少未来因患者并发症而合理住院的数量，为从医生到政策制定者的各种利益相关者提供关于新冠肺炎长期影响的宝贵见解，并改善患者护理和治疗，从而帮助节省大量医疗成本。 利用我们团队现有的生物仪器技术和多年的经验，我们提议开发一种定制设计的微型监测系统，能够记录脉搏血氧仪(血氧水平)、血压、心率以及呼吸和吞咽声音。该解决方案将是非侵入性的，易于实施，并且不需要助手亲自到场。该系统将通过与一名医生定期举行视频会议来扩大。在咨询我们团队的医生后，可以根据患者的情况和病史修改连接的频率。 通过大规模运行拟议的项目，预期结果将是：1)收集关于新冠肺炎长期影响的可靠和客观信息；2)为未来的应用开发一种一体化技术；3)收集可用于优化患者护理和治疗计划的客观和可操作的信息；4)无论住所偏远，为社会各阶层提供更好的护理和治疗；以及5)改善患者的心理健康和康复。

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.