Lyle Dennis, MD, Neurologist, Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of RPM Healthcare
Connecting with patients, especially relative to monitoring chronic conditions, is becoming increasingly difficult. Physician and nursing shortages that began before the pandemic are now magnified, placing our nation’s healthcare system in an extremely challenging position. Professional shortages, increased costs, obstacles, and reports of extreme stress, anxiety, and burnout are plaguing our healthcare system. Dr. Dennis discusses these challenges and how providers can benefit from remote patient monitoring.
What is your specialty?
Neurology
What made you decide to become a physician?
Primarily a fascination with how the human brain functions which then evolved into wanting to diagnose and treat disorders of the nervous system and be able to help those so afflicted.
What are the challenges you are seeing in today’s healthcare environment?
The pace of research and its clinical translation continues to remain slow. There are tremendous bureaucratic obstacles and an overwhelmingly inflated cost of care. Also, many patients remain unable to access healthcare or understand how to participate in their own care leading to insufficient compliance and adherence. Physicians and other healthcare professionals also face clinician burnout due to overwhelming amounts of data, digital demands, long patient wait times, and limited time.
Why did you feel the need to start RPM Healthcare?
I recognized long ago that there was a great need to improve the connection of the physician and the patient between visits. The mobile phone revolution, along with other digital capabilities, offered an opportunity to close that gap. The advent of CMS support for remote patient monitoring enabled the necessary finances to actualize it.
How does remote care benefit you as a physician?
Having access to physiological and reported data occurring between visits greatly informs physicians leading to improved management of patients. Typically, what a patient can recall at a visit is inaccurate and incomplete. Remote care allows for more accurate decision-making and thus better outcomes.
How does remote care benefit your patients?
Patients enjoy feeling better connected with their physicians between visits. They have a better sense of security regarding their health and are better cared for. They have an increased sense of accountability and exhibit higher rates of compliance which leads to better outcomes.
What benefits do you see in offering care coaching services with nurses employed by the company?
Technology cannot replace real human-to-human interaction. Having a personalized nurse care coach gives patients an extremely valuable asset to help improve their health. They can develop meaningful relationships with skilled health professionals who can help them understand how to take better care of themselves and understand their health conditions and related data.
What has been some of the feedback you have received from RPM clients?
Clients are thrilled to see population data of their RPM patients, showing very substantial improvement in metrics. They are also excited to see positive patient satisfaction data. EMR Integrations have been very successful as well.
What has been some of the feedback you have received from patients?
We have received a large volume of positive feedback from patients on how pleased they are with our care coaching and how much more comfortable they have become in managing their health conditions.
RPM Healthcare is a comprehensive digital health solution that enables providers to extend patient care beyond the medical office enhancing the patient experience, improving clinical outcomes, and ensuring patient safety. Our expert team, including local nurses, manages the patient process from enrollment to reporting readings from FDA-cleared devices. Our platform empowers patients to take their own readings at home with RPM clinicians monitoring results and reducing workflow disruptions. RPM has a long history of enhancing patient care, providing digital tools, education and reducing healthcare costs. For more information, call 888-672-8436.
