Lincare, the leading provider of home respiratory care in the U.S., is using the Medixine platform in a new remote patient monitoring service for respiratory patients. With remote monitoring, patients’ chronic conditions can be better managed and exacerbations identified, quality of life can be improved, and the overall cost of care may be reduced.
ESPOO, Finland (December 8, 2022)The Finnish health tech company Medixine’s remote care software platform has successfully been in production on the U.S. market since last August. Medixine was chosen as the technology partner for Lincare, the leading provider of home respiratory care in the U.S., driven by their existing relationship with Linde Healthcare in Europe which is the parent company of Lincare.
Partnering with Medixine, Lincare started a new remote monitoring program targeted at patients with chronic respiratory diseases like COPD (a chronic obstructive lung disease). The service utilizes remote patient monitoring technology to help healthcare providers detect health problems early with appropriate intervention and improves patient diagnostics.
To date, the service has been scaled to cover the entire state of Florida, with plans to begin expanding throughout the United States in 2023.
Medixine and Linde, the parent company of Lincare, have collaborated on providing remote patient monitoring services in Europe since 2019.
“We are very excited to join Lincare in their mission to bring substantial benefits to patients all over the United States. Having been in use with patients in the U.S. for some time now we can be proud to say that we have already been able to help the lives of patients and ease the burden of work for medical professionals. The feedback we are hearing makes me sure of the success of the service,” says Lasse Rousi, CEO of Medixine, and continues:
“Our journey with Lincare enables significant growth for us in the U.S. It is a very large market for remote care: distances between patients and healthcare providers can be long, and – as in most societies – the population is aging. The need for remote care solutions for chronic conditions keeps growing.”
Transforming healthcare with a proactive, technology-enabled approach
“COPD is a leading cause of disability and death in the U.S., with more than 12.5 million people diagnosed with the disease. The cooperation with Medixine is helping us in our mission to transform the way respiratory care is delivered in the home, improving the quality of life for both patients and their families,” states Lincare CEO Crispin Teufel.
COPD’s symptoms include breathing difficulty and coughing, and it causes an increased risk of heart disease and other illnesses. If left untreated, the disease will progress faster, greatly impacting the quality of life.
The patients involved in the program are given Bluetooth-connected medical devices, like pulse oximeters and blood pressure monitors, that they use to measure their vital signs at home. The data is then transmitted to the clinical team via the remote monitoring platform Medixine Suite, allowing them to take appropriate steps to support the patient if their condition appears to worsen.
As remote monitoring devices track a patient’s condition between office visits, providers will gain better insight into the patient’s day-to-day health. Lincare’s clinical staff remotely meets with patients at least monthly to assist with their disease management and to update the patient’s traditional healthcare providers as needed.
As both companies gather learnings from the remote patient monitoring and treatment of COPD, the cooperation may be broadened to include other chronic conditions in the future.
Lincare is the largest U.S. provider of respiratory care in the home with a broad geographic reach, offering an extensive portfolio of quality products and services from Respiratory and Sleep Therapies to INR Testing and Durable Medical Equipment. The company is operating in 48 states and covers approximately two million patients.
Medixine is a Finnish health technology company that is active in 8 countries. Its services cover a patient population of 2,5 million. Medixine’s customers are for example the leading U.S. provider of respiratory care Lincare and its mother company Linde, Nestlé Health Science, NHS, the North and South hospital areas of Denmark, and Finnish Student Health Services.
For additional information:
Medixine
Lasse Rousi
CEO
+358 401 845 793
lasse.rousi@medixine.com
Linda Pynnönen
Marketing & Communications Manager
+358 503 063 294
linda.pynnonen@medixine.com
Lincare
Crispin Teufel
CEO
cteufel@lincare.com
Dr. Suketu Shah
Medical Director