Respiratory failure is caused by various conditions, including the impairment of gas exchange due to lung injury, pump failure of respiratory muscles, and abnormal ventilatory control. Respiratory failure is an important disease condition, because it can impair healthy life expectancy. In addition to drugs, respiratory rehabilitation, and surgeries such as lung transplantation, chronic respiratory failure treatment includes oxygen therapy and noninvasive ventilation (NIV).
Home health care, including home oxygen therapy (HOT), is an important part of chronic respiratory failure treatment. The number of patients on HOT has increased steadily to 140,000 in 2014, and the primary users are elderly patients with an average age >70 years. This trend will likely continue because Japan is experiencing a “super-aging” society.
The development of telecommunications equipment has enabled us to establish telemedicine, including telemonitoring. Telemonitoring has attracted interest as a potential solution to provide care for increasing aging populations living with chronic respiratory failure, particularly HOT users. In Japan, payment for “remote patient monitoring” was newly added to the medical payment system in 2018. Despite the increasing importance of home health care and telemedicine for chronic respiratory failure, a system to collect useful bioinformation has not yet been established. The aim of this department is to improve the management of respiratory failure by establishing a telemonitoring system through the collaboration of the Kyoto University Hospital and Teijin Pharma Ltd.