Wearable Monitoring Devices in the Emergency Department

Use your experience as someone with a complex or serious medical condition (or their informal caregiver) who has visited the emergency department to give your opinions about the merits of a promising research proposal on the use of wearable monitoring devices.

Open to: Patient partners with experience as patients or informal caregivers across the province

Lead Organization or Department

UBC Department of Emergency Medicine

Aim

This meeting will provide an opportunity to learn about a research project that seeks to develop and test modern wearable monitoring devices in the emergency department and to then determine if patients and/or their informal caregivers (e.g. family) would support the basic idea of such a study. Those who do support the idea will help to co-create a letter that will be included with the application for grant funding. Note: you may also choose to write your own letter if you prefer. If and when the project is funded, patients who attend this session may be invited to further guide the project.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the research partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

• Patients or informal caregivers (e.g. family) with experience visiting an emergency department for a serious chronic or complex condition, preferably heart failure (HF) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
• Ideally, able to travel to the Vancouver General Hospital for a meeting. For those who are unable to attend the meeting, alternate arrangements may be made – e.g. information can be sent via email with a follow-up telephone call. For Patient Partners across the Province, there will also be an option to participate via teleconference.
• Patients should have previously attended a PVN orientation and completed the Volunteer Agreement.

Logistics

• Number of vacancies – up to 10
• Date and Time – Tuesday, May 23, 4:00-6:00 pm
• Location – Jim Pattison Pavilion, Vancouver General Hospital. For patient partners outside of the Lower Mainland, there will be an opportunity to participate via teleconference.
• Commitment – The initial commitment is for a 2-hour meeting.

Reimbursement

Patient in the Lower Mainland/Fraser Valley will be reimbursed for approved local out-of-pocket expenses such as mileage and parking, or the cost of public transportation. Refreshments will be served.

Background

When patients with serious illnesses or complex symptoms come to the emergency department, doctors have limited time to determine whether the patient can be safely discharged or should be admitted to hospital. The proposed study will develop and test the use of a suite of wearable digital sensors that continuously measure the patients’ various signs (e.g. blood pressure, oxygen saturation, temperature) to better assess a patient’s status. These measurements will help doctors determine with greater confidence whether a patient can be discharged home safely or would need to be admitted. It is felt that having this information will not only help doctors decide, it will empower patients and families to share in the decision and reduce their anxiety related to the patient’s condition. The study, should it be funded, will focus on two common chronic diseases, heart failure (HF) and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), two conditions that often lead patients to visit the emergency department repeatedly. The research team currently working on the grant application consists of emergency department doctors, heart and lung specialists, health system decision-makers, evaluators, and one patient partner. The team is preparing an application for grant funding that will be submitted to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in early June. They would like to include letters of support for the basic idea of this research from patients and families. Long-term, they would also like to expand the number of patient partners involved in this project. Those who attend this engagement opportunity may be invited to continue with the project if and when it is funded.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Karen Estrin
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Lower Mainland & Sunshine Coast
604.668.8245
kestrin@bcpsqc.ca