Study design (if review, criteria of inclusion for studies)
pilot trial, randomised
Participants
60 adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) enrolled at four Italian CF centres.
Interventions
home telemonitoring system. 30 randomly selected patients received a home device to perform spirometry and to measure oxygen saturation. The data were transferred to a data centre which forwarded them to the patient's CF clinic.
Outcome measures
The telemonitoring system was evaluated using questionnaires completed by patients and their doctors.
Main results
The doctors reported that telemonitoring was useful in monitoring their patients' health status and in decreasing the CF centre workload. The data transfer procedure posed no particular problems for the patients. The major difficulties reported by the patients were night-time saturimetry measurements, and in the first week of the study, data transmission to the data centre.
Authors' conclusions
The pilot trial was positive and therefore merits a larger study.
Keywords: adult; telemedicine; non pharmacological intervention - psyco-soc-edu-org; Home; non pharmacological intervention - devices OR physiotherapy; Organization;