AUTHOR=Dinh Aurélien , Mercier Jean-Christophe , Jaulmes Luc , Artigou Jean-Yves , Juillière Yves , Yordanov Youri , Jourdain Patrick ,  The AP-HP/Universities/INSERM COVID-19 Research Collaboration , Aurélien Dinh , Jean-Christophe Mercier , Jean-Yves Artigou , Yves Juillière , Luc Jaulmes , Youri Yordanov , Patrick Jourdain , Caroline Apra , Luc Jaulmes , Arthur Mensch , Amélie Aime-Eusebi , Caroline Apra , Alexandre Bleibtreu , Erwan Debuc , Agnes Dechartres , Laurene Deconinck , Aurelien Dinh , Patrick Jourdain , Christine Katlama , Josselin Lebel , François-Xavier Lescure , Youri Yordanov , Yves Artigou , Amelie Banzet , Elodie Boucheron , Christiane Boudier , Edouard Buzenac , Marie-Claire Chapron , Dalhia Chekaoui , Laurent De Bastard , Erwan Debuc , Aurelien Dinh , Alexandre Grenier , Pierre-Etienne Haas , Julien Hody , Michele Jarraya , Patrick Jourdain , Louis Lacaille , Guern Aurelie Le , Jeremy Leclert , Fanny Male , Jerome Marchand-Arvier , Emmanuel Martin-Blondet , Apolinne Nassour , Oussama Ourahou , Thomas Penn , Ambre Ribardiere , Nicolas Robin , Camille Rouge , Nicolas Schmidt , Pascaline Villie 

TITLE=Safe Discharge Home With Telemedicine of Patients Requiring Nasal Oxygen Therapy After COVID-19

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.703017

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2021.703017

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic created challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. 
During the pandemic, patients with COVID-19 from greater Paris area were monitored at home using a web-based remote system called COVIDOM™, using self-administered questionnaires, which triggered alerts to a regional control center. 
Patients still requiring low-flow oxygen therapy discharged home were also included in this telemedicine solution. We aim to evaluate the safety of this original management.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective multicenter cohort of patients monitored by questionnaire and trained physicians using COVIDOM. During late follow-up, the status of the patients using a Euro-Qol (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire, and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Dyspnea scale was collected.
Results
From March 21st to June 21st 2020, 73 COVID-19 patients still receiving nasal oxygen at hospital discharge were included. Median [Inter-Quartile Range (IQR)] age was 62.0 [52.5-69.0] years, 64.4% were male. Altogether, risk factors were observed in 49/73 (67%) patients, mainly hypertension (35.6%), diabetes mellitus (15.1%) and active neoplasia (11.0%). Among the cohort, 26% of patients were previously managed in ICU. 
Oxygen therapy was required for a median [IQR] of 20 [16-31] days. No death or urgent unplanned hospitalization were observed during the COVIDOM telemonitoring.
During late follow-up evaluation, the mean EQ-5D-5L questionnaire score was 7.0 ± 1.6, and the mean MRC dyspnea scale was 0.8 ± 1.0, indicating absence of dyspnea. Five patients have died from non-COVID causes.
Conclusions
In this preliminary study, early discharge home of patients with severe COVID-19 disease who still required low-oxygen therapy seems to be safe.