Between traveling to appointments and long wait times at a clinic, visiting a doctor can be challenging. The experience leaves many of us wondering: In today’s technology-driven, fast-paced world, shouldn’t there be a better way?

Connected care can cut through some of those hassles by meeting patients where they are — sometimes in their own home. But connected care isn’t solely at-home convenience; it’s also real-time monitoring and personalized insights that can be used by a patient’s care team.  

Here are three ways connected care is changing the patient experience:

• Remote healthcare. The idea of receiving healthcare remotely from the comfort of a patient’s home is no longer a far-flung idea — it’s commonplace, and healthcare technology makes it possible.
  
  Many Medtronic  connected devices can communicate directly with smartphones and tablets via mobile apps, making coordinating care with doctors easier. Medtronic is the only company whose entire portfolio of cardiac implantable electronic devices is compatible with a smartphone app.
   
• Real-time monitoring. With advances in technology, medical devices are getting smaller, more sophisticated, and smarter. They’re able to sense and process detailed information every millisecond and deliver the appropriate therapy, all within a patient’s body. 
  
  One example of real-time monitoring is the world’s first hybrid closed-loop insulin delivery system, designed by Medtronic with people in mind. It delivers insulin based on continuous glucose monitoring and reduces the need for people with diabetes to actively make adjustments, giving them more freedom to live their lives.
   
• Personalized insights. Healthcare technology is transforming the way patients are assessed, monitored, and treated to make care more convenient for patients and to provide clinicians with better insights. Those insights can, in turn, help a clinician tailor treatment and keep family in the loop.

Medtronic is prioritizing diverse needs among patients, too. More than 35 million people live with diabetes in the United States, but Black and Hispanic Americans with diabetes are two to three times less likely to use technology to treat the disease, compared to white Americans. Medtronic is working to remove some of the barriers that lead to this disparity through interventions in diabetes care, increasing diverse representation in clinical studies, partnering with provider centers, and educating patients.

With connected care, the patient experience comes full circle. Medtronic is using science and technology to help gather a greater understanding of patients’ unique needs and enabling the transformation of people-centered care.

L001-01302023

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