Background Telemonitoring (TM) for COPD has been shown to reduce hospital admissions in some but not all studies and its cost-effectiveness has been questioned. However, technical advances, real-time coaching as well as increased digital engagement by patients and healthcare professionals, especially since COVID may have changed things. One of the potential barriers to TM is patient adherence and data quality in the home setting.

Aim To record TM usage, data quality and patient experience in a real-world clinical setting.

Methods Specialist COPD community nurses enrolled 54 patients (32 male) mean (SD) age 68(9) years with COPD mean FEV₁37% predicted, attending secondary care into a TM service between April-December 2022. Patients were onboarded by NuvoAir respiratory physiologists via phone/video calls and were coached in how to perform home spirometry (NuvoAir Air Next spirometer) weekly as well as and other TM measures daily. Data was uploaded through an App on the patient’s own phone/tablet. The NuvoAir team reviewed data and shared reports with the clinical team through alerts and/or in fortnightly 30 minute MS Teams meetings. Patients were sent a questionnaire for feedback on TM in March 2023.

Results A total of 54 patients were followed for a median of 9 months (range 4 to 13), 4 patients withdrew (at mean 5.5 months) data collected during this period is included. Adherence data are shown in the table 1, 71% of home spirometry was acceptable (graded A-C, ATS/ERS 2005). Patients were offered coaching to improve lower graded tests which were more common during exacerbations.

When surveyed, 89% of patients (23 responses) found weekly spirometry useful to understand patterns of their health, 91% found it provided reassurance and 82% felt it was useful to improve their spirometry technique. TM received a net promoter score of 91.

Conclusion High levels of home TM engagement and adherence to good quality spirometry can be obtained with digital coaching in selected patients with COPD. It is likely that personalised physiologist support drives high engagement and patient experience.