Home-based heart monitoring could help save lives while reducing the cost of follow-up care for patients with heart failure, according to a new study.
Patients who were monitored from afar via Biotronik’s Home Monitoring system for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators were less likely to die or suffer worsening symptoms of heart failure, according to new results from the IN-TIME study. The patients all had Biotronik ICDs that are capable of capturing and wirelessly transmitting heart rhythm information from home.
Patients in the study were not made aware of their remote monitoring unless they were contacted during the course of the study due to an unusual reading. When followed out to 1 year, patients who received routine remote monitoring (333 out of 664) had a lower mortality risk compared to those who were not monitored (331 out of 664). Ten patients from the telemonitoring arm died, compared with 27 in the non-monitored group.
The non-monitored patients also got sicker more often than the monitored patients, according to the study published this week in the journal Lancet. About 27% of the non-monitored patients registered more severe heart failure by the end of the study, compared to about 19% of the monitored patients.
The findings are just the latest in a growing body of evidence suggesting that remote monitoring helps keep patients healthier, but it’s not entirely clear how exactly the technology helps. A series of reports released this year during Heart Rhythm 2014 posed that exact question, while similarly reporting positive results of the impact of remote monitoring.
Whatever the mechanism, researchers have maintained that patients stand only to gain from telemonitoring and medtech’s biggest players have taken note.
Medtech giant Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) in 2002 launched its CareLink network, a connectivity system for its pacemakers and defibrillators, and the company has put a lot of skin into its Reveal LINQ tiny implantable heart monitor. Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) in June 2012 touted the European launch of its Latitude NXT patient monitoring system, which combines data from the implanted device as well as blood pressure readers and weight scales. St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) runs its own Merlin.net home monitoring system and the company just threw down $445 million to acquire CardioMEMS and its Champion HF implantable heart monitor.