James Bell

I am a retired employee of Birmingham VA Medical Center after 38 years of service. Most of my work was in the Cardiac Unit where I worked with various medical devices and performed ambulatory (EKG) monitoring. This was my passion but who would have thought that following retirement I would become a monitored patient myself.

After years of battling my own chronic illnesses (heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes) I contracted Covid-19. While convalescing I was enrolled in VA’s home monitoring program. This program was instrumental in insuring a full complete recovery from Covid-19 without the need for additional acute inpatient hospitalizations.

I am now an active participant in VA’s chronic illness home monitoring program. I am a living witness for the effectiveness of home monitoring programs. Technology has made such programs patient friendly, cost effective and lifesaving.