Feasibility of Self-Performed Lung Ultrasound with Remote Teleguidance for Monitoring at Home COVID-19 Patients

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, use of telemedicine with the aim of reducing the rate of viral transmission increased. This proof-of-concept observational study was planned to test the feasibility of a home-based lung ultrasound (LUS) follow-up performed by patients with mild COVID-19 infection on themselves. We enrolled patients presenting to the emergency department with SARS-CoV-2 infection without signs of pneumonia and indication to discharge. Each patient received a brief training on how to perform LUS and a handheld ultrasound probe. Then, patients were contacted on a daily basis, and LUS images were acquired by the patients themselves under “teleguidance” by the investigator. Twenty-one patients were enrolled with a median age of 44 years. All evaluations were of sufficient quality for a follow up. Probability of a better LUS quality was related to higher degree (odds ratio, OR, 1.42, 95% CI 0.5–3.99) and a lower quality to evaluation time (from 0.71, 95% CI 0.55–0.92 for less than 7 min, to 0.52, 95% CI 0.38–0.7, between 7 and 10 min, and to 0.29, 95% CI 0.2–0.43, for evaluations longer than 10 min). No effect related to gender or age was detected. LUS performed by patients and remotely overseen by expert providers seems to be a feasible and reliable telemedicine tool.

Exploring the Feasibility of At‐Home Lung Ultra‐Portable Ultrasound: Parent‐Performed Pediatric Lung Imaging

“…While these studies have all highlighted the use of ultra‐portable ultrasound in non‐traditional settings, our study is unique in that users with no prior ultrasound experience were able to perform at home ultrasound of their children after undergoing only a brief tutorial while in the emergency department and no live instruction was present during image collection. Our study results also re‐validate that novice users are able to successfully obtain interpretable images on their own following only brief instruction 11,19 …”

“…Our study results also re-validate that novice users are able to successfully obtain interpretable images on their own following only brief instruction. 11,19 There is overall scarce literature evaluating brief tutorials and/or remote guidance in the use of ultraportable ultrasound. There are no existing studies evaluating ultra-portable ultrasound use at home in children.…”

Expanding Quality by Design Principles to Support 3D Printed Medical Device Development Following the Renewed Regulatory Framework in Europe

“…Remote patient monitoring encompasses the use of devices, smartphones and applications that can directly report objective information to the monitor, which excludes data distortion due to patient bias. The availability of the large data set gained from digital monitoring allows further analysis and thus has the potential to finally realize personalized treatment, which supports the current paradigm shift [ 166 , 167 ]. The use of TM and other medical devices, particularly combined with information technologies, have the potential to bring about a transformational change in health care by altering the interaction process between patient and provider [ 168 ].…”