Rimidi has partnered with BodyTrace, a cellular technology company, to provide cellular-enabled scales to heart failure patients who are remotely monitored by their clinicians using Rimidi’s software platform. The cellular scales provide a frictionless experience for patients; all they have to do is step on the scale and their weight is automatically transmitted to the Rimidi platform, where their care team can monitor changes in weight that may indicate fluid retention and worsening heart failure.
Rimidi Overview
Rimidi is a cloud-based software solution that enables personalized management of chronic cardiometabolic conditions across populations, including heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease. Rimidi integrates patient-generated health data from connected devices (such as scales) with patient data in a health system’s electronic medical record, giving clinicians a more complete view of each patient’s health. The Rimidi platform enables remote patient monitoring and remote patient-provider communication. The platform provides advanced analytics and prompts clinical action when appropriate.
Key to Scalable Heart Failure Program
The ability to monitor weight changes in heart failure patients inside of the EHR workflow in conjunction with analytics about other aspects of their heart failure management is key to a scalable heart failure program, according to Lucienne M. Ide, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief health innovator at Rimidi.
“One of the signs of worsening heart failure is weight gain, indicating fluid retention,” said Dr. Ide. “Clinicians can work with Rimidi to set alerts if a patient shows a concerning amount of weight gain over the course of 24 hours or a week. Clinicians can then follow up with patients remotely to see if they’re experiencing any other symptoms of worsening heart failure—shortness of breath, coughing, swelling in ankles—before the complications lead to an emergency room visit or hospital admission.”
According to Dr. Ide, recording weight at the same time each morning can help clinicians identify early signs of heart failure exacerbation. BodyTrace uses the cellular (GSM) network to transmit the recorded weights directly into Rimidi’s system.
Value of Rimidi’s Integration with BodyTrace
“With BodyTrace scales, we really wanted to provide an out-of-the-box solution,” said Amit Ghia, VP, Product & Partnerships for BodyTrace. “There’s no complicated syncing, just take the scale out of the box, step on it as often as your clinician directs you to, and let us handle getting that information to your doctor.”
The heart failure case management team at Desert Oasis Healthcare (DOHC), part of Heritage Provider Network, has implemented Rimidi’s heart failure program using BodyTrace scales to remotely monitor their heart failure patients. This system prevents costly complications and reduces readmissions. DOHC currently monitors over 170 patients using the BodyTrace scales and Rimidi platform.
“The team managing our heart failure patients who use the BodyTrace scale, find it much easier to monitor fluid balance,” said Judi Urban, RN, Supervisor of Disease Management at DOHC. “BodyTrace scales used with Rimidi’s software, allow us to identify members with fluid overload. This enables quick intervention avoiding worsening of symptoms, and preventing eventual admission to the hospital.”