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CONNECT: Wireless remote monitoring ICDs, CRT-Ds significantly lowered length of hospital stay
Crossley G. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011;57:1181-1189.
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When compared with standard in-office care, patients treated with implantable cardioverter defibrillators or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators that featured wireless remote monitoring with automatic clinician alerts had significantly reduced mean length of hospital stay and time to a clinical decision, new data suggested.
As a result of these findings, the researchers wrote, “Clinics employing wireless remote monitoring may expect fewer total clinic visits per year while not increasing the rate of ED visits or CV hospitalizations for their patients.”
The Clinical Evaluation of Remote Notification to Reduce Time to Clinical Decision (CONNECT) trial included 1,997 patients from 136 clinical sites enrolled between November 2006 and May 2008. Each patient underwent insertion of an ICD or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) and were randomly assigned to either the remote monitoring arm (n=1,014) that utilized the Medtronic CareLink Network or the in-office arm (n=983).
During a follow-up of 15 months, the median time from clinical event to clinical decision was substantially reduced in the remote monitoring arm compared with the in-office arm (4.6 days vs. 22 days; P<.001). Also reduced in the remote monitoring group was the mean length of stay per CV hospitalization visit (3.3 days vs. 4 days; P=.002). Due to the reduction in length of stay, the estimated mean cost of hospitalization was considerably lower in the remote arm ($8,114 vs. $9,822).
Initial Cardiology Today coverage of the CONNECT trial from ACC 2010 can be viewed here.
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