Covid-19, a commonly severe respiratory tract infection caused by the SARS-CoV2Coronavirus, poses an increasing threat to individual health and health care systems. Theindividual disease course ranges from mild to life threatening, the pandemic spread leadsto a shortage of health care resources including intensive care availability. It shouldbe the overarching goal to allocate sparse health care resources to those most at needand to simultaneously avoid unnecessary blocking of resources by clinically unjustifiedhospitalizations.Individuals with preexisting cardiovascular conditions are at the highest risk of healthdeterioration, even at younger age. Objective criteria for hospitalization are notimmediately available in a outpatient settings. Hence, hospitalization and emergencymedical contact is often triggered by subjectively interpreted symptoms. The goal of thisproject is thus to improve the availability of objective measurements in the outpatientsetting by means of an innovative, smartwatch mediated telemedicine approach.To achieve this goal, the investigators will conduct a randomized clinical trialcomparing a smartwatch based telemedicine intervention with standard of care. Theintervention group will receive regular objective measurements of heart rate, ECG, andSpO2 and will get access to a 24/7 medical care hotline for consultation. Theinvestigators hypothesize that the intervention group will benefit by a significantreduction in unnecessary hospitalizations and unplanned emergency medicine contacts.
Device: Withings ScanWatch
The smart watch is capable of recording SpO2, ECG, and heart rate.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Confirmed SARS-CoV2 infection and clinical Covid-19 disease
- age ≥18 years
- Presence of ≥1 relevan cardiovascular condition, defined as (or):
- atrial fibrillation
- systolic or diastolic heart failure
- LV ejection fraction <50%
- coronary artery disease with past PCI or CABG
- Past myocardial infarction
- diabetes mellitus
- arterial hypertension (treated or untreated)
- active smoking
- chronic obstructive lung disease
- obesity (BMI ≥30kg/m2)
- availability of smartphone and sufficient internet connectivity at home
- ability to use smartwatch
- informed consent to study participation and data protection concept
Exclusion Criteria:
- Participation in concurrent clinical trial
- indication for hospitalization at study entry
LMU Klinikum
Munich, BY, Germany
Steffen Massberg, MD, Study Director
Department Head