Patients who participate in the two PICASO trials are testing and evaluating the PICASO home monitoring solution.
Home or self-monitoring allows patients a more active role in their own care which in previous studies has shown to have clinical benefits as well as positive effects on chronic patients’ quality of life.
PICASO helps patients to take a more active role in managing their condition by providing an easy-to-use means of measuring and monitoring important health parameters and sharing the data with the relevant clinicians, and in some cases their informal caregivers.
Using a standard tablet, the patient has a dashboard consisting of a care plan diary complete with schedules for medication intake, what health parameters to measure, clinical appointments, etc.
Integrate multiple care plans
An exciting, planned feature of the PICASO care plan diary is the integration of the multiple care plans the patients have if they suffer from multiple morbidities. It makes it simpler for the patient to get an overview of and to adhere to their care plan. PICASO can help them become more in control of their condition, to rely less on their physician for monitoring of specific health parameters and to share their monitored data with all relevant stakeholders by a simple click.
Two video user guides instruct the patient in taking measurements.
Data are only shared with those clinicians who have been granted access by the patients. Behind the “simple click” to share data lies a unique authorisation and security infrastructure which ensures the patients control of their health data.
Understanding the effect of patient empowerment
Better overview, insight and knowledge, more control, and more self-efficacy are essential elements of patient empowerment, and empowered patients are likely to be more engaged in managing their chronic conditions, thus resulting in a better clinical outcome and higher quality of life.
The participants in the PICASO trial will help the project in evaluating how well PICASO facilitates and supports patient empowerment. Although the PICASO trials are small in scale, we expect the results to contribute to a better and uniform understanding of both patient empowerment as a concept, ways of measuring it, and its effect on the health outcome.
Related article: Positive feedback from the clinical trials