Introduction: In modern healthcare, telemedicine services play a significant role, particularly in monitoring patients with chronic non-communicable diseases. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a major public health concern, often requiring long-term oxygen therapy at home, which positively impacts patients' quality of life, reduces hospitalizations, and lowers treatment costs. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the benefits of providing telemedicine services to patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who require long-term oxygen therapy at home. Methods: A review of foreign scientific literature published from 2014 to 2024 was conducted. The search was performed in the bibliographic databases CINAHL Ultimate, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, and the search engine Google Scholar. Boolean operators (AND and OR) were used to structure the search terms, which included: telemedicine, telehealth, ehealth, e-health, mhealth, m-health, telenursing, digital technology, monitoring, COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, LTOT, oxygen therapy, long-term oxygen therapy, oxygen, and oxygen at home. Nineteen articles meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the analysis. Results: The use of telemedicine services helps predict acute exacerbations of COPD, reduces the frequency of unplanned hospitalizations, enhances individualized support, improves quality of life, and facilitates patients' participation in virtual respiratory rehabilitation programs. Monitoring blood oxygen saturation is a key indicator in predicting disease exacerbations. Discussion and conclusion: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD requires close health monitoring, and telemedicine services have proven to be highly effective in this regard. These services play an essential role in supporting patients in their home environments by allowing healthcare professionals to remotely monitor health status, adjust treatment, and predict acute disease exacerbations. This leads to improved quality of life for patients and reduces unnecessary stress from traveling to outpatient clinics. In comparison to other European countries, telemedicine services in Slovenia are still underutilized.
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