Data show remote reprogramming of insertable cardiac monitors may improve clinic workflow
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- Remote reprogramming for implantable cardiac devices was associated with an improvement in clinic workflow.
- Patients who received remote reprogramming had a 20.5% reduction in ICM alerts.
Insertable cardiac monitors with capability for remote reprogramming were associated with a clinic workflow improvement of 211 hours per 100 patients, data from a real-world analysis show.
The high volume of transmissions generated by insertable cardiac monitors (ICMs) has been associated with an increase in workload for remote monitoring clinic staff, Sarah Rosemas, MPH, principal health economics and outcomes researcher at Medtronic, and colleagues wrote in the study background.
Image: Adobe Stock
“However, the magnitude of transmission frequency is highly dependent on programming settings, reason for monitoring and patient education,” Rosemas and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. “Appropriate programming of ICMs can reduce alert volume and, in turn, have an impactful effect in decreasing workload for clinics.”
In a retrospective study, Rosemas and colleagues analyzed data from 39,050 U.S. patients implanted with LINQ II ICM (Medtronic; n = 19,525) or Reveal LINQ TruRhythm ICM (Medtronic; n = 19,525) from March 2020 to September 2021, using the Medtronic CareLink data warehouse and analytics services database. Researchers used propensity score matching based on age at implant and reasons for monitoring for the two cohorts. Device reprogramming was defined as a change in one or more device parameters. Researchers assessed the impact of device reprogramming capabilities on ICM alert burden and clinic workflow.
Patients who received remote reprogramming experienced a 20.5% reduction in ICM alerts. Among patients with at least one reprogramming (n = 7,384), the mean number of alerts per patient month was 3.32 before first reprogramming vs. 2.64 after the final observed reprogramming instance (P < .001)
Compared with patients monitored with LINQ TruRhythm, patients with LINQ II had their device reprogrammed sooner after implant and more frequently during follow‐up.
Additionally, in a projection analysis that considered each reprogramming event as a clinic visit, researchers determined that the adoption of remote programming could save 211 hours per 100 patients with ICMs in total clinic time.
“These data suggest that utilization of ICM alert reprogramming has increased with remote capabilities, which may reduce clinic and patient burden for ICM follow‐up and free clinician time for other valuable patient care activities,” the researchers wrote.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts