From Pandemic Response to Everyday Care: The Next Phase of RPM

From Pandemic Response to Everyday Care: The Next Phase of RPM

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition from facility-based care to remote care.

Monitoring patients outside the hospital became an operational necessity as healthcare organizations looked for ways to maintain visibility into recovery while limiting unnecessary in-person contact.

But the lasting impact of that period is not simply the wider use of connected devices. It is the recognition that remote data must become part of a reliable clinical process.

A 2025 case study published in JMIR Formative Research offers a timely example. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles adapted an existing remote monitoring system for people affected by COVID-19, collecting activity, symptom, and vital-sign data during a two-week period at home.

The project provides a closer view of what remote monitoring can capture and the operational demands that emerge once care moves beyond traditional settings.

A Closer View of Recovery at Home

The UCLA team adapted its Sensing At-Risk Populations system to support at-home COVID-19 monitoring.

The system combined a smartwatch, pulse oximeter, thermometer, respiratory monitoring device, and indoor location sensors. Together, these tools collected data on physical activity, energy expenditure, indoor movement, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, heart rate, and temperature.

Seventy-three participants were recruited for the two-week monitoring period.

Researchers observed increasing activity levels toward the end of the study, respiratory rates moving toward lower levels, and improvements in oxygen saturation measurements. Fatigue and headache were the most frequently reported symptoms, followed by cough and loss of smell or taste.

Because no adverse events occurred during the monitoring period, the research shifted away from predictive modeling and toward an exploratory analysis of recovery patterns.

The study was not designed as a controlled comparison between RPM and standard care. Its practical contribution was a detailed view of how multiple data streams could be collected from patients recovering at home.

It also revealed where remote monitoring becomes operationally difficult.

Patient Participation Shapes the Quality of Remote Data

Although 73 participants entered the study, consistent use varied across devices.

Forty-one participants adhered to the monitoring technology, while only 22 met the smartwatch-data threshold used for the analysis. Thirty-nine used the pulse oximeter, 37 used the thermometer, and 36 completed respiratory monitoring at night.

This difference between enrollment and consistent participation is more than a technical detail. It directly affects the information available to care teams.

A missed reading may reflect a device problem, uncertainty about how to use the equipment, declining patient engagement, or a change in the patient’s condition. Without follow-up, the care team may not know which explanation applies.

Reliable RPM therefore depends on more than distributing devices. It requires patient onboarding, technical support, engagement monitoring, and a clear process for responding when expected data does not arrive.

Data Becomes Valuable Through Clinical Action

Connected devices can generate a continuous stream of measurements, but data alone does not create a care program.

Someone must review the information, recognize patterns, determine whether a reading requires attention, and coordinate the appropriate response.

That work becomes increasingly complex as the number of patients and devices grows. Care teams need to know which readings have been reviewed, which patients require follow-up, which concerns have been escalated, and which actions have already been documented.

Without structured workflows, remote monitoring can create another disconnected source of clinical information rather than a more connected form of care.

The operational value of RPM comes from turning incoming data into visible responsibilities and documented next steps.

EHR Connection as the Next Operational Step

The study’s authors identified EHR integration as an important future direction for remote monitoring.

Full EHR integration was not evaluated during the project. Instead, the authors suggested that connecting remote data with electronic health records could improve accuracy and reduce the burden of manual data collection.

That distinction matters because it points to a broader operational challenge.

When remote measurements remain separated from the patient’s clinical record, care teams may need to move between systems, enter information manually, or reconstruct earlier actions during follow-up.

EHR-connected documentation can bring remote care activity closer to the broader patient record. It can also help clinicians understand incoming measurements within the context of care plans, previous communication, and documented clinical decisions.

The objective is not simply to move more data into the EHR. It is to keep the information connected to the workflow surrounding the patient.

From Emergency Deployment to Continuous Care

The UCLA project focused on short-term COVID-19 monitoring during an extraordinary public health emergency. Everyday RPM programs operate across a much longer timeline.

Patients managing hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, COPD, and other chronic conditions may remain enrolled for months or years. Their engagement can change, their treatment plans can evolve, and their measurements must be understood as part of a longer clinical history.

That makes longitudinal monitoring essential.

Care teams need to recognize changes over time, follow up when participation declines, coordinate care when new concerns emerge, and maintain a reliable record of the actions taken.

The case study highlights the transition healthcare organizations must make: from temporarily deploying monitoring technology to building repeatable remote care processes.

Building the Operational Layer With Hoss Care

This is the operational layer Hoss Care’s Remote Patient Monitoring program is designed to support.

Structured workflows help organize enrollment, device setup, reading review, patient follow-up, and documentation. Care coordination and escalation processes give teams a clearer way to manage missing data, patient questions, and readings that require clinical attention.

Through the HossCare platform, patient measurements can remain connected with care plans, communication history, assigned tasks, and documented care activity.

EHR-connected documentation keeps remote care activity closer to the broader patient record. Longitudinal monitoring gives care teams visibility into patient changes over time, while program reporting helps organizations understand performance across patients, teams, and workflows.

This infrastructure also supports documentation designed to support audit readiness while allowing clinicians to remain focused on patient care.

The Next Phase of RPM Is Connected Execution

The pandemic demonstrated how quickly healthcare may need to extend care beyond traditional settings.

The UCLA case study shows how an existing monitoring system was adapted to collect activity, symptoms, and vital signs from patients at home. Just as importantly, it brings attention to the operational realities of participation, data continuity, and follow-up.

More devices alone will not resolve missing readings, unclear responsibilities, fragmented documentation, or delayed clinical action.

The next phase of RPM depends on connected execution: bringing patient data, clinical workflows, follow-up, escalation, documentation, and reporting into one continuous care process.

The devices collect the signal. The care infrastructure ensures that the signal reaches the right next step.

Ready to Build a More Connected RPM Program?

See how Hoss Care supports structured workflows, EHR-connected documentation, patient follow-up, care coordination, escalation processes, longitudinal monitoring, and program reporting. Book a demo.

Sources

Ramezani R, Zhang W, Cao M, et al. Remote Patient Monitoring for Global Emergencies: Case Study in Patients With COVID-19. JMIR Formative Research. 2025;9:e66773. DOI: 10.2196/66773. Read the full study.