Aparito is delighted to announce that we are joining the fight against COVID-19. Using our flagship platform Atom5TM, Aparito will support remote patient monitoring of up to 1,200 cancer patients under the care of Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, helping vulnerable patients to stay at home and still receive care and support from their clinicians. #mHealth #wearables #cancer #oncology #Garmin
Aparito is a digital health company with a technology platform (Atom5TM) that supports remote patient monitoring globally. Using patient-generated data in the form of videos, data from Garmin wearable devices, photos and text, data is captured and transferred via the patient’s own smartphone/tablet and made available to clinicians and researchers in real-time. The system is deployed under a Quality Management System for ISO 13485, has Cyber Essential Plus (CE+) in place and operates within the GDPR regulations.
The COVID-19 crisis means that bed capacity in all hospitals is vastly overstretched. All efforts are now focused on both increasing this capacity and reducing the need for patients to be admitted (e.g. through cancelling clinical appointments and day care admissions).
For the oncology population, this is a particularly worrying time. During this COVID pandemic, febrile (feverish) patients have to be assumed as potential virus-positive individuals and kept in isolation. This is because of the risk that if the patient does have COVID-19 they risk contaminating all immunosuppressed patients they may come into contact with during hospital visits.
Thus, such patients should be monitored at home where possible so that low-risk neutropenic patients can more easily and safely be sent home via their Doctor on oral antibiotics with the Aparito digital surveillance solution in place.
At the same time, keeping all patients in hospital which can result in an escalation of care to critical and/or intensive care is not always the right care option for the patient. This means that they may be better supported in their own home with the help of their own family member and the community team. Based on the clinical assessment, physicians may discharge patients with Oxygen therapy and Aparito’s digitally enabled remote patient monitoring solution via our Atom5TM platform and a Garmin wearable device. Garmin wearable devices are not designed or intended to be used as medical devices but can provide health data, including resting heart rate, activity levels and blood oxygen saturation that can be useful in tracking a patient’s health.
We are proud to collaborate with the experienced team at Aparito to help them provide insights for patients facing a higher risk of COVID-19.
Jörn Watzke, Senior Director, Garmin Health BD
Cancer patients – especially those who are immunosuppressed, are feeling particularly vulnerable to serious complications of infection and of side effects of chemotherapy. Our efforts to supply appropriate surveillance at home with minimal impact of patient’s routine will mean that our triage team, led by myself and Dr Nicholas Wreglesworth will be able to provide the best advice and minimise unplanned clinical visits to those really required. This digital solution could moreover pave the path to a more proactive, precise and home-based approach to management of patients receiving anticancer treatment.
Dr Pasquale Innominato, Consultant Oncologist at Ysbyty Gwynedd:
The recent spread of COVID-19 has caused unprecedented demand to our National Health Service (NHS). Providing acute care to COVID-19 without negatively impacting on the care of other conditions will be a major challenge. Over the last five years at Aparito we have deployed our Atom5TMplatform for supporting patient enrolment in clinical trials and research. The solution naturally lends itself to supporting routine clinical care and we are pleased that we can offer this to support Dr Innominato and his colleagues in north Wales.
Dr Elin Haf Davies, Aparito CEO and Founder
Collaboration is key in the fight against COVID-19 which is why Aparito welcomes the opportunity to partner in this endeavour to support remote patient monitoring.