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Health care technology holds great potential to improve the quality of health care delivery. One effective technology is remote patient monitoring, whereby patient data, such as vital signs or symptom reports, are captured from home monitoring devices and transmitted to health care professionals for review. The use of remote patient monitoring, often referred to as telehealth, has been widely adopted by health care providers, particularly home care agencies. Most agencies have invested in telehealth to facilitate the early identification of disease exacerbation, particularly for patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure and diabetes. This technology has been successfully harnessed by agencies to reduce rehospitalization rates through remote data interpretation and the provision of timely interventions. We propose that the use of telehealth by home care agencies and other health care providers be expanded to empower patients and promote disease self-management with resultant improved health care outcomes. This article describes how remote monitoring, in combination with the application of salient adult learning and cognitive behavioral theories and applied to telehealth care delivery and practice, can promote improved patient self-efficacy with disease management. We present theories applicable for improving health-related behaviors and illustrate how theory-based practices can be implemented in the field of home care. Home care teams that deliver theory-based telehealth function as valuable partners to physicians and hospitals in an integrated health care delivery system.

Practicing nurses who have special expertise concerning clinical problems generally have minimal involvement in clinical nursing research. As a step toward increasing their research participation and, therefore, the relevancy of clinical studies, this study surveyed 1,217 nurses employed at nine health care agencies concerning their research attitudes, work environment, and research involvement. Descriptive statistics indicated that nurses value nursing research and want more time for research-related activities. Discriminant function analysis revealed that prior research instruction, awareness of support for research, and positive attitudes toward research were predictive of nurses' participation in research activities.

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The Chronic Care Model (CCM) developed by is an influential and accepted guide for the care of patients with chronic disease. Wagner acknowledges a current healthcare focus on acute care needs that often circumvents chronic care coordination. He identifies the need for a "division of labor" to assist the primary care physician with this neglected function. This article posits that the role of chronic care coordination assistance and disease management fits within the purview of home healthcare and should be central to home health chronic care delivery. An expanded Home-Based Chronic Care Model (HBCCM) is described that builds on Wagner's model and integrates salient theories from fields beyond medicine. The expanded model maximizes the potential for disease self-management success and is intended to provide a foundation for home health's integral role in chronic disease management.