Madrid will implement new technology for patients at home

The Community of Madrid will begin to implement the pilot project before next summer Personalized Digital Health, a technology and wireless initiative Aimed at patients who are in home hospitalization.

As they have progressed since Digitalization Departmentconsists of a platform based on sensors and smart devices connected remotely, between patients’ homes and public health centers, which will make possible the telemonitoring of those people who, by optional decision, can continue their recovery process at home and do so with the maximum guarantees.

“This is a plan with which the regional Executive seeks to advance closer attention to the citizenminimize the family impact of an admission, avoid unnecessary trips and promote the recovery of patients in more comfortable environments. Furthermore, this project aims to progressively transform health care and make the latest technological advances available to the people of Madrid,” said the Minister of Digitalization, Miguel López-Valverde.

This new resource will have as its central point a software through which professionals and patients will communicate through video calls, instant messaging, email or questionnaires. In addition, it will be linked to intelligent IoT (Internet of Things) devices that will be responsible for transmitting clinical monitoring information, such as vital signs or blood glucose indices, among others.

An application to control symptoms

The initiative, which has a budget allocation of 4.1 million of euros, is one of the main milestones that the Department of Digitalization will carry out in 2026 within the Personalized Digital Care Plan, framed in turn in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the European Union.

In addition to contributing to streamlining and expanding the capacity of specialized assistance through telemonitoring, its objective is move towards a closer hospital model to the citizen.

So that the entire communication circuit can function, the platform will also consist of a space web accessible from different devices so that health workers can receive and manage information about each individual and a patient application in which they can monitor their vital signs and symptoms at home and transmit the information to the hospital.

The platform will be integrated into the Virtual Health Card (TSV), to unify all health management services in a single digital channel. The system will allow the digitalization of healthcare processes and telemonitoring with flexibility to adapt to each clinical situation, and must be able to be integrated into existing hospital systems, especially with the Electronic Medical Record, with advanced cybersecurity measures that guarantee the protection of health information and personal data.

How the platform will work

Depending on the individualized care plan defined by the medical team, Personaliz@ will allow two types of monitoring: intensive or non-intensive, depending on the protocol designed in the hospital. In the first case, it will integrate people who need daily and exhaustive control of their vital records through automatic sensors. To do this, the Department of Digitalization will distribute 150 kits, each of which will have a tablet with an Android system, and sensors such as pulse oximeter, thermometer, blood pressure monitor, glucometer or scale.

On the contrary, the second case will include those who need other types of care and who do not require these intelligent information collection devices. They will have an application with which they can interact by accessing reports, training sessions and manually entering the data that their doctors or nurses request through, for example, questionnaires.

The device on which it is installed the patient app You must have connectivity (Bluetooth or via Wi-Fi) with the pulse oximeter, blood pressure monitor, thermometer, glucometer and scale devices.

In addition, there will be a Support Center that will be responsible for monitoring all these care itineraries on the technological platform and associating a defined and validated action protocol for each of these plans. You will also be in charge of making the audiovisual training material and support so that users can consult questions about their pathology on their tablets or about the operation of the platform.

In his house, patients will have their care plan and you will receive a notification every time your vital signs need to be collected or an evolution questionnaire is required. This will be done, depending on each case, through the connected wireless sensors or by manually entering them into the tablet or through a patient app.

In the hospital, clinical managers will receive the information that will be automatically uploaded to the technological platform, with a notice appearing based on the criteria that have been programmed. In this way they will be able to stratify patients based on their risk to be able to review the information, prioritize to those who need preferential attention and take appropriate actions if necessary.

Personaliz@ will also incorporate elements of gamification to help patients make positive changes in certain health behaviors through higher levels of motivation with the introduction of challenges that include rewards.