Telemonitoring of Home Oxygen Therapy: A Review of the State of the Art and Introduction of a New Cloud-based System

Abstract

Home oxygen therapy allows patients requiring long-term oxygen therapy to receive care at home and helps improve the prognosis of patients with chronic respiratory failure. The usage conditions of oxygen concentrators, which are used to supply gaseous oxygen, and the effects of oxygen inhaled at a prescribed flow rate have not been confirmed in adequate detail. As a result of advances in information and communications technology, internet communication functions can now be incorporated into medical devices installed in patients’ homes. This allows time-series data on oxygen concentrator usage and biological variables to be stored on a server and accessed remotely by health care providers, enabling them to check the validity of home oxygen therapy and intervene appropriately. In Japan, telemonitoring of home oxygen therapy is covered by social insurance systems and is recognized as a new medical technology. This article reviews the usefulness of telemonitoring of home oxygen therapy and describes the cloud-based analytical system we have developed.