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Using broadband to help COPD patients

F.v. Marijke Risberg og Astrid Bratvold.

2007.11.26 by Jan Fredrik Frantzen

Many COPD patients are so ill that they cannot leave their homes. So it is an advantage for them to have the opportunity to receive guidance and rehabilitation in their own homes. And telemedicine holds the secret.

From left Marijke Risberg and Astrid Bratvold give the patients individual counselling, based on the data that the patients add to the electronic health diary. Green is the marker for positive development, and red means poorer health. Photo: Jan Fredrik Frantzen, NST.

Figures from the Directorate for Health and Social Affairs show that more than 200,000 Norwegians are living with COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is becoming increasingly prevalent.

This incurable illness destroys the tissue in the lungs, and those who are affected suffer from fatigue, attacks, and severe coughing. In addition, the illness is one of the most common causes of death in our society.

Electronic diary and individual follow-up

At the Elisabeth Centre in Tromsø, trials are now under way to find out whether telemedicine can help this growing group of patients. Using the TV, remote control and a computer, the participants in the EU project “Better Breathing” meet both health staff and other COPD patients in “TV meetings” – without leaving their homes.

“In this way we can reach those who cannot manage to get to the centre, whether they are too ill to come or they live too far away,” explains nurse Astrid Bratvold, who is working with this project.

The counselling and training programme is based on traditional treatment, but here, the doctor, physiotherapist, nurse, and nutritionist arrive on a “virtual home visit”. A small computer in the patient's living room is linked to a broadband line and the TV.

On the TV, the participants can watch a variety of training videos, which provide tips about exercise techniques and nutrition, among other information. In addition, they use a remote control to enter information in a diary on TV about their diet, their condition that day, any deterioration, and their level of activity. They use a pedometer to keep track of their activity level.

May become a permanent service

Week by week, patients can themselves keep track of the development in their health. At the same time, health staff can use the information to provide individual follow-up adapted to each patient's illness.

Combined with the individual follow-up, groups of patients receive practical training and can do exercise routines together via TV. To fight the illness, it is very important to exercise and maintain one's physical condition.

“We believe it will be easier for patients to maintain their own exercise programme when we 'visit them in their homes' through the TV in their living room,” explains physiotherapist Marijke Risberg.

The Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine, Norut, the University Hospital of North Norway (UNN) and Well conducted a similar project in 2005, but in the new project they are going further. They will now find out whether this service functions so well that it can be used by the public health service as part of the standard support programme.

“We also want to find out whether patients feel that this helps to improve their quality of life. The aim is to use telemedicine to provide an improved health service offering to more people – without breaking the health budget,” says project manager Tatjana M. Burkow at the NST.

Contact person at the NST

Tatjana M. Burkow, project manager, telephone +47 957 29 041 and email Tatjana.M.Burkow@telemed.no

Facts about the project

The trial project forms part of the EU project “Better Breathing”, which aims to develop and test new services to make everyday life easier for COPD patients. The Tromsø participants are investigating whether home-based training and follow-up with the help of telemedicine can make life easier for patients with this disease.

The project began in June 2007 and will continue until the end of 2008. The work is being funded by the European Commission, and researchers will test a variety of services in Spain, Denmark and Wales, as well as in Tromsø.

Facts about COPD

A characteristic of COPD is that lung capacity weakens rapidly from year to year. Here are eight key facts about COPD (source: the website of the Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs):

In Norway, more than 200,000 people are living with COPD -- many do not know that they are affected
Smoking is the major cause of COPD
If you do not smoke, the risk of developing COPD is very low.
Between 15 and 20 % of those who smoke heavily develop COPD
Symptoms of COPD include severe coughing with sputum (mucus), wheezing in the chest and shortness of breath
Spirometry is a test of the lungs which shows whether you have COPD. Your GP can do a spirometry test
Every year, acute worsening of COPD causes several thousand admissions to Norwegian hospitals
COPD cannot be cured, only alleviated. The most important step to take is to stop smoking

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