Abstract
Background
Covidom was a telemonitoring solution for home monitoring of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, deployed in March 2020 in the Greater Paris area in France to alleviate the burden on the health care system. The Covidom solution included a free mobile application with daily monitoring questionnaires and a regional control center to quickly handle patient alerts, including dispatching emergency medical services when necessary.
Objective
This study aimed to provide an overall evaluation of the Covidom solution 18 months after its inception in terms of effectiveness, safety, and cost.
Methods
Our primary outcome was to measure effectiveness using the number of handled alerts, response escalation, and patient-reported medical contacts outside of Covidom. Then, we analyzed the safety of Covidom by assessing its ability to detect clinical worsening, defined as hospitalization or death, and the number of patients with clinical worsening without any preceding alert. We evaluated the cost of Covidom and compared the cost of hospitalization for Covidom and non-Covidom patients with mild COVID-19 cases seen in the emergency departments of the largest network of hospitals in the Greater Paris area (Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris). Finally, we reported on user satisfaction.
Results
Of the 60,073 patients monitored by Covidom, the regional control center handled 285,496 alerts and dispatched emergency medical services 518 times. Of the 13,204 respondents who responded to either of the follow-up questionnaires, 65.8% (n=8690) reported having sought medical care outside the Covidom solution during their monitoring period. Of the 947 patients who experienced clinical worsening while adhering to daily monitoring, only 35 (3.7%) did not previously trigger alerts (35 were hospitalized, including 1 who died). The average cost of Covidom was €54 (US $1=€0.8614) per patient, and the cost of hospitalization for COVID-19 worsening was significantly lower in Covidom than in non-Covidom patients with mild COVID-19 cases seen in the emergency departments of Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris. The patients who responded to the satisfaction questionnaire had a median rating of 9 (out of 10) for the likelihood of recommending Covidom.
Conclusions
Covidom may have contributed to alleviating the pressure on the health care system in the initial months of the pandemic, although its impact was lower than anticipated, with a substantial number of patients having consulted outside of Covidom. Covidom seems to be safe for home monitoring of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.