Healthtech company Levvel Health is behind a new app-based, plug & play solution for long COVID patients and healthcare professionals. The app, Levvel.connect, connects patients who do not require hospitalization with healthcare professionals in hospitals and long COVID clinics.

With the app installed on a mobile phone, long COVID patients can easily and securely record information about their symptoms from home. The healthcare staff gets a comprehensive overview of all relevant patient data via a dashboard and can monitor the condition of several hundred patients at a time and over a longer period – rather than having to settle with the snapshot they usually get when patients show up in person for a check-up. If a patient’s condition worsens, healthcare professionals are automatically advised and can offer the right assistance.

In addition, the app’s registration of patient data can help to map how long COVID symptoms develop, what symptoms occur, as well as qualify data across patients.

“The pandemic has pushed the healthcare system to the edge, and with more and more COVID-19 patients, long COVID patients, chronic patients and the elderly, there is a need for smarter solutions so that the healthcare system can prioritize hospitalizing the most critical patients and offer a safe alternative to hospitalization for patients who are not critically ill. Remote monitoring can help turn patients who need to be followed by healthcare professionals but are not critically ill into active partners. It only requires that the patients themselves can make measurements and cross off a questionnaire in an app. The app therefore makes healthcare services more accessible to more patients – for fewer resources,” says Jesper Lodahl, CEO of Levvel Health ApS.

Treatment vacuum is filled
Today, there can be a period of many months in which long COVID patients are not followed by their own doctor or long COVID clinic. That challenge is solved by Levvel.connect.

“Globally, we do not know much about long COVID effects yet. But we know that a treatment vacuum can arise for those patients who have post-COVID effects for more than four weeks. We also know that the more active role the patients themselves play, the better treatment outcomes they get. Several patients experience measurable damage primarily to the lungs, and other patients experience severely disabling symptoms without measurable damage to organs. These symptoms can be closely monitored by the healthcare system via the app,” says Sebastian Karlson, specialist in lung diseases and medical consultant at Levvel Health ApS.

Globally, the number of COVID-19 infected is approaching 155 million. Different studies provide different answers to how many COVID-19 patients experience post-COVID conditions. According to an English study with over 4,000 respondents, between 10-20 percent of COVID-19 infected people experienced long COVID one month after having COVID-19. According to the National Health Authority, approximately 10% of people who are diagnosed with COVID-19 experience long-term effects, which means symptoms that lasts for more than 4 weeks after the onset of the disease. However, it is expected that the real figure may be up to 15% as more studies are carried out.

Reducing IT barriers
The app for long COVID patients has been developed with support from the EU and is a customized version of Levvel Health’s app for patients with chronic diseases. The post-COVID Condition’s app is available on both iOS and Android and is hosted on IBM Cloud.

An open hybrid cloud approach with IBM can eliminate traditional IT barriers and help enable integration with third-party solutions. Data is stored in IBM’s German data center, which addresses European regulations regarding governance, compliance and GDPR.

Levvel Health builds its app solutions on the OpenTele platform, which is used by 6,000 chronic patients in Europe. People with post-COVID conditions and healthcare professionals are connected via this remote monitoring platform. The app contains the latest guidelines for long COVID and works in many different languages. In addition, the app can be used for acute COVID-19 patients.

FACTS: About post-COVID Conditions:

According to the Danish Health and Medicines Authority, post-COVID Conditions refers to the long-term effects of COVID-19 disease when symptoms have lasted for 4 weeks or more after the disease started. It’s called post-COVID Conditions when these long-lasting symptoms last for 12 weeks or more after the initial disease started.

Long-term symptoms/late effects associated with COVID-19 can be seen in people of all ages. They can also be seen in both people who have had mild and more serious illnesses with hospitalization and possibly intensive treatment.

Whether it is a disease with long-term symptoms or late effects, it does not in itself necessitate a health professional effort. It will always depend on an assessment of the complexity and severity of the symptoms.

Source: www.sst.dk

About Levvel Health
Levvel Health is a Danish healthtech company from 2020, which specializes in Remote Patient Monitoring in various therapeutic areas, including COVID-19 and COVID-19 sequelae. Levvel Health supports the healthcare sector’s need to make healthcare more accessible to more patients and with fewer resources. Levvel Health develops app solutions on the OpenTele platform, which are used by 6,000 chronic patients in Europe. The app for late follow-up patients is based on IBM Cloud and can be put into operation in one day.

About IBM Cloud
IBM Cloud is the most secure, open, and intelligent cloud platform for the B2B market. It provides optimal freedom to build and put into operation immediately and supports the needs of both small and large companies for hybrid multicloud solutions, advanced data analysis and AI capabilities. IBM Cloud is used in 47 of the United States’ 50 largest companies.