Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) unveiled its next-generation Latitude NXT patient monitoring system in Europe this week, implanting the 1st patient with an Ingenio pacemaker designed to connect with a home-based wireless communicator that can tie in data from blood pressure readings as well as a weight scale.
"The system offers clinicians the most comprehensive suite of diagnostic tools in the CRM industry to support proactive treatment decisions and provide an opportunity to verify improvement of clinical outcomes," Dr. Roberto Verlato, who implanted the device at Camposampiero Hospital in Verona, Italy, said in prepared remarks.
The Latitude NXT system works with the Natick, Mass.-based device giant’s Ingenio and Advantio pacemakers and its Invive cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers, according to a press release.
The remote monitoring system includes an at-home wireless communicator that initiates data transfer with the pacemaker and sends information to physicians via text or email alerts, maintains the data on a website and can integrate with hospital medical record databases.
Boston Scientific hopes the new system can take the place of some office visits as well as save time healthcare workers would spend manually entering patient heart data into health records. Automated data transfer into patient records could save 15 minutes per patient per transmission, according to the company.
By combining heart data with blood pressure and weight measurements, the company aims to provide physicians with more tools for defining patient risk categories and making proactive treatment decisions, according to the release.
The Latitude NXT system is currently under FDA review, but it not yet available in the U.S.
