Abstract :
Patients with heart failure (HF) are pertinent to significant risks of mortality and rehospitalization overtime. Most of them suffer worsening HF condition requiring readmission as the result of poor compliance on medication and lifestyle changes. In parallel, the Corona virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put enormous pressure on health care systems worldwide, including in Indonesia. This pandemic imposes on restricted access to public healthcare, and the same time it also hinders the patients to seek medical service related to the fear of getting infected by the viral disease. Nevertheless, home telemonitoring could be a promising solution upon this matter. This worrisome period might be a proper time to revisit the implementation of this contactless, safe, practical, and effective approach for managing HF patients. Thus, this review would describe: 1) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to HF management, 2) the rationale of telemonitoring for HF patients in pandemic era, 3) the telemonitoring process and current guidelines recommendation, and 4) telemonitoring interventions in HF trials. A comprehensive search was conducted through Pubmed published until 28th July 2021. Searched terms expressing heart failure were used in combination with terms identifying telemonitoring or remote patient monitoring. COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the movement towards telemonitoring solutions in clinical practice worldwide. Early interventions with telemonitoring among HF patients may be effective to detect initial adverse events which leads to reduced morbidity, mortality, and re-hospitalization. Telemonitoring may also improve quality of life, increase patients’ self-confidence or self-care behavior with a cost-effective method. Home telemonitoring has the potential to maintain and optimize the management of patients with HF, and COVID-19 pandemic is a golden opportunity to implement this strategy. However, healthcare services should adapt to this method to support optimal remote patient monitoring and care.
