Patient-Telemonitoring After Revascularization Procedures in the Lower Extremities

Multidisciplinary cooperation of participating healthcare professionals, use of common standards in diagnostics, and clinical pathways in the treatment of vascular patients should provide for a higher-quality clinical practice. Using telemedicine, a more efficient way of obtaining specialist treatment is achievable. However, its introduction may raise safety and security issues, which originate from its enabling information technology. In this chapter, a model of patient-telemonitoring after revascularization procedures in the lower extremities is presented. A protocol for proper authentication and authorization to access medical equipment and patient medical records has been introduced. The associated clinical study has shown that most post-operative follow-up examinations can successfully be performed by trained nurses. Hence, improvements to healthcare logistics, mainly due to shortening waiting times for specialist treatment and the reduction of follow-up examinations on the secondary healthcare level, can be achieved using telemedicine.