Large-scale real-life implementation of technology-enabled care to maximize hospitals' medical surge preparedness during future infectious disease outbreaks and winter seasons: a viewpoint

Abstract

Hospitals can be overburdened with large numbers of patients with severe infectious conditions during infectious disease outbreaks. Such outbreaks or epidemics put tremendous pressure on the admission capacity of care facilities in the concerned region, negatively affecting the elective program within these facilities. Such situations have been observed during the recent waves of the coronavirus disease pandemic. Owing to the imminent threat of a “tripledemic” by new variants of the coronavirus disease (such as the new Omicron XBB.1.16 strain), influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus during future winter seasons, healthcare agencies should take decisive steps to safeguard hospitals' surge capacity while continuing to provide optimal and safe care to a potentially large number of patients in their trusted home environment. Preparedness of health systems for infectious diseases will require dynamic interaction between a continuous assessment of region-wide available hospital capacity and programs for intensive home treatment of patients who can spread the disease. In this viewpoint, we describe an innovative, dynamic coupling system between hospital surge capacity and cascading activation of a nationwide system for remote patient monitoring. This approach was developed using the multi-criteria decision analysis methodology, considering previously published real-life experiences on remote patient monitoring.

Assessment of a Functional Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis of Near-Body Medical Devices Subject to Electromagnetic Field Perturbation

“…In such a case, disturbances due to EMF noise mainly concern universal non-ionizing procedures using MRI. The second category concerns body onboard embedded and wearable devices [14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…The wearable biosensors involved behave as non-intrusive tools allowing real-time monitoring of patients, providing sufficient data to establish their health status and can constitute a first diagnosis. Devices integrated into the body can be static passive for permanent monitoring, e.g., [17], or active stimulating or assisting tools, e.g., [18]. All of these onboard tools enable diligent, personalized and tailored healthcare.…”