Same-day discovery of implantable cardioverter defibrillator dysfunction in the TRUST remote monitoring trial: influence of contrasting messaging systems

2023 HRS/EHRA/APHRS/LAHRS expert consensus statement on practical management of the remote device clinic

Remote monitoring is beneficial for the management of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices by impacting morbidity and mortality. With increasing numbers of patients using remote monitoring, keeping up with higher volume of remote monitoring transmissions creates challenges for device clinic staff. This international multidisciplinary document is intended to guide cardiac electrophysiologists, allied professionals, and hospital administrators in managing remote monitoring clinics. This includes guidance for remote monitoring clinic staffing, appropriate clinic workflows, patient education, and alert management. This expert consensus statement also addresses other topics such as communication of transmission results, use of third-party resources, manufacturer responsibilities, and programming concerns. The goal is to provide evidence-based recommendations impacting all aspects of remote monitoring services. Gaps in current knowledge and guidance for future research directions are also identified.

The digital journey: 25 years of digital development in electrophysiology from an Europace perspective

AIMS

Over the past 25 years there has been a substantial development in the field of digital electrophysiology (EP) and in parallel a substantial increase in publications on digital cardiology.In this celebratory paper, we provide an overview of the digital field by highlighting publications from the field focusing on the EP Europace journal.

RESULTS

In this journey across the past quarter of a century we follow the development of digital tools commonly used in the clinic spanning from the initiation of digital clinics through the early days of telemonitoring, to wearables, mobile applications, and the use of fully virtual clinics. We then provide a chronicle of the field of artificial intelligence, a regulatory perspective, and at the end of our journey provide a future outlook for digital EP.

CONCLUSION

Over the past 25 years Europace has published a substantial number of papers on digital EP, with a marked expansion in digital publications in recent years.

Remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices and disease management

This reviews the transition of remote monitoring of patients with cardiac electronic implantable devices from curiosity to standard of care. This has been delivered by technology evolution from patient-activated remote interrogations at appointed intervals to continuous monitoring that automatically flags clinically actionable information to the clinic for review. This model has facilitated follow-up and received professional society recommendations. Additionally, continuous monitoring has provided a new level of granularity of diagnostic data enabling extension of patient management from device to disease management. This ushers in an era of digital medicine with wider applications in cardiovascular medicine.

2023 HRS/EHRA/APHRS/LAHRS Expert Consensus Statement on Practical Management of the Remote Device Clinic

Remote monitoring is beneficial for the management of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices by impacting morbidity and mortality. With increasing numbers of patients using remote monitoring, keeping up with higher volume of remote monitoring transmissions creates challenges for device clinic staff. This international multidisciplinary document is intended to guide cardiac electrophysiologists, allied professionals, and hospital administrators in managing remote monitoring clinics. This includes guidance for remote monitoring clinic staffing, appropriate clinic workflows, patient education, and alert management. This expert consensus statement also addresses other topics such as communication of transmission results, use of third-party resources, manufacturer responsibilities, and programming concerns. The goal is to provide evidence-based recommendations impacting all aspects of remote monitoring services. Gaps in current knowledge and guidance for future research directions are also identified.

2023 HRS/EHRA/APHRS/LAHRS Expert Consensus Statement on Practical Management of the Remote Device Clinic

Remote monitoring is beneficial for the management of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices by impacting morbidity and mortality. With increasing numbers of patients using remote monitoring, keeping up with higher volume of remote monitoring transmissions creates challenges for device clinic staff. This international multidisciplinary document is intended to guide cardiac electrophysiologists, allied professionals, and hospital administrators in managing remote monitoring clinics. This includes guidance for remote monitoring clinic staffing, appropriate clinic workflows, patient education, and alert management. This expert consensus statement also addresses other topics such as communication of transmission results, use of third-party resources, manufacturer responsibilities, and programming concerns. The goal is to provide evidence-based recommendations impacting all aspects of remote monitoring services. Gaps in current knowledge and guidance for future research directions are also identified.

Remote Patient Monitoring: What Have We Learned and Where Are We Going?

Purpose of Review

Remote monitoring (RM) of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) is an important part of patient follow-up. The increasing number of patients with CIEDs and the recent pandemic pose several challenges for already limited device clinic resources. This review focuses on recent evolutions in RM and identifies future needs to improve RM.

Recent Findings

RM has been associated with multiple clinical benefits, including improved survival, early detection of actionable events, reduction in inappropriate shocks, longer battery lives, and more efficient healthcare utilization. The survival benefit was driven by studies using alert-based continuous RM with daily transmissions and fast reaction times. Patients report a high satisfaction rate without significant differences in quality of life between RM and in-office follow-up.The increasing workload, due to the increasing number of CIEDs implanted with daily remote transmissions, results in several challenges for the future of RM. RM requires appropriate reimbursement for RM device clinics to optimize patient/staff ratios, including sufficient non-clinical and administrative support. Universal alert programming and data processing may minimize inter-manufacturer differences, improve the signal-to-noise ratio, and allow the development of standard operating protocols and workflows. In the future, programming by remote control and true remote programming may further improve remote CIED management, patient quality of life, and device clinic workflows.

Summary

RM should be considered standard of care in management of patients with CIEDs. The clinical benefits of RM can be maximized by an alert-based continuous RM model. Adapted healthcare policies are required to keep RM manageable for the future.

The Role of Daily Implant-Based Multiparametric Telemonitoring in Patients with a Ventricular Assist Device

The telemonitoring of heart failure (HF) patients is becoming increasingly important. This study aimed to evaluate the benefit of telemonitoring in end-stage HF patients with a ventricular-assistance device (VAD). A total of 26 HF-patients (66 ± 11 years, 88% male) on VAD therapy with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or a cardiac resynchronization defibrillator (CRT-D) including telemonitoring function were enrolled. The long-term follow-up data (4.10 ± 2.58 years) were assessed. All the patients (n = 26, 100%) received daily ICD/CRT-D telemonitoring. In most of the patients (73%, n = 19), the telemedical center had to take action for a mean of three times. An acute alert due to sustained ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) occurred in 12 patients (63%) with 50% of them (n = 6) requiring ICD shock delivery. Eight patients (67%) were hospitalized due to symptomatic VAs. In 11 patients (92%), immediate medication adjustments were recommended. Relevant lead issues were revealed in thirteen patients (50%), with six patients (46%) undergoing consecutive lead revisions. Most of the events (83%) were detected within 24 h. Daily telemonitoring significantly reduced the number of in-hospital device controls by 44% (p < 0.01). The telemonitoring ensured that cardiac arrhythmias and device/lead problems were identified early, allowing pre-emptive and prompt interventions. In addition, the telemonitoring significantly reduced the number of in-hospital device controls in this cohort of HF patients.

Alert-Based ICD Follow-Up: A Model of Digitally Driven Remote Patient Monitoring

OBJECTIVES

The goal of this study was to test whether continuous automatic remote patient monitoring (RPM) linked to centralized analytics reduces nonactionable in-person patient evaluation (IPE) but maintains detection of at-risk patients and provides actionable notifications.

BACKGROUND

Conventional ambulatory care requires frequent IPEs. Many encounters are nonactionable, and additional unscheduled IPEs occur.

METHODS

Patients receiving implantable cardioverter-defibrillators for Class I/IIa indications were randomized (2:1) to RPM or conventional follow-up, and they were followed up for 15 months. IPEs were conducted every 3 months in the conventional care group but at 3 and 15 months with RPM. Groups were compared for patient retention, nonactionable IPEs, and discovery of at-risk patients during 1 year of exclusive RPM. Frequency and value of RPM alerts were assessed.

RESULTS

Patients enrolled (mean age 63.5 ± 12.8 years; male 71.9%; left ventricular ejection fraction 29.0 ± 10.7%; primary prevention 72.3%; n = 1450) were similar between groups (977 RPM vs. 473 conventional care). Mean follow-up durations were 407 ± 103 days for the RPM group versus 399 ± 111 days for the conventional care group (p = 0.165). Patient attrition to follow-up was 42% greater with conventional care (20.1% [87 of 431]) versus RPM (14.2% [129 of 908]; p = 0.007). Nonactionable IPEs were reduced 81% by RPM (0.7 per patient year) compared with conventional care (3.6 per patient year; p < 0.001) but event discoveries remained similar (2.9 per patient year). In RPM, alert rate was median 1 per patient (interquartile range: 0 to 3) with >50% actionability, indicating low volume but high clinical value. Unscheduled IPE was the basis for discovery of 100% of intercurrent problems in RPM and also 75% in conventional care, indicating limited value of appointment-based follow-up for problem discovery. The number of IPEs needed to discover an actionable event was 8.2 in Conventional, 4.9 in RPM, and 2.1 when alert driven (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

RPM transformed ambulatory care to IPE directed to those patients with clinically actionable events when required. Filtering patient information by digitally driven remote monitoring expends fewer clinic resources while providing a greater yield of actionable interventions. (Lumos-T Safely Reduces Routine Office Device Follow-up [TRUST]; NCT00336284).

Remote monitoring of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and resynchronization devices to improve patient outcomes: dead end or way ahead?

Remote monitoring (RM) has become a new standard of care in the follow-up of patients with implantable pacemakers and defibrillators. While it has been consistently shown that RM enables earlier detection of clinically actionable events compared with traditional in-patient evaluation, this advantage did not translate into improved patient outcomes in clinical trials of RM except one study using daily multiparameter telemonitoring in heart failure (HF) patients. Therefore, this review, focusing on RM studies of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators in patients with HF, discusses possible explanations for the differences in trial outcomes. Patient selection may play an important role as more severe HF and concomitant atrial fibrillation have been associated with improved outcomes by RM. Furthermore, the technical set-up of RM may have an important impact as a higher level of connectivity with more frequent data transmission can be linked to better outcomes. Finally, there is growing evidence as to the need of effective algorithms ensuring a fast and well-structured clinical response to the events detected by RM. These factors re-emphasize the potential of remote management of device patients with HF and call for continued clinical research and technical development in the field.

Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Therapy in Heart Failure

The population of patients with heart failure continues to grow, which introduced significant challenges in clinical practice related to the management of cardiac arrhythmia and advanced heart failure syndromes. Device therapy has increasingly become essential in the management of life-threatening arrhythmia and clinical heart failure in this population. This review will discuss the use of cardiac implantable electronic devices in heart failure with primary focus on sudden cardiac death prevention and cardiac resynchronization, including published evidence and evolving technologies.

Initial experience with telemonitoring in left ventricular assist device patients

Background

Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) are increasingly used in patients with end stage heart failure. The HeartAssist 5 and aVAD LVADs offer telemetric monitoring capabilities. Here we report our initial single centre experience with the largest telemonitoring cohort of LVAD patients.

Methods

Eleven patients (9 males) received a telemonitoring-capable LVAD and were included in our telemonitoring cohort. Waveforms and alarm data were obtained from the telemonitoring system and hospital records were reviewed for clinical data.

Results

Mean age at LVAD implantation was 59±5.1 years (mean ± standard deviation). Seven patients had non-ischemic cardiomyopathy and 4 patients had ischemic cardiomyopathy. Median LVEF at implant was 16% (IQR, 15-20%). The total follow-up time was 2,438 patient-days. A total of 6,216 alarm messages were generated in 11 patients. Most common were low flow alarms due to hypovolemia, followed by low flow alarms because of suspected pump thrombosis. One patient died during follow-up, one received a cardiac transplant and one had the LVAD explanted because of pump thrombosis. Pump thrombosis was suspected in 5 patients with 8 episodes of sudden flow decreases and laboratory signs of haemolysis.

Conclusions

Real-time telemonitoring of LVAD pump flow, motor speed and power consumption is a promising tool in the follow-up of LVAD recipients. Trending pump flow over hours or days can assist in the early detection of complications, especially flow reductions due to hypovolemia and LVAD thrombosis. Further studies are warranted to delineate the impact of remote monitoring on patients' prognosis.

Digital monitoring and care: Virtual medicine

Remote digital health monitoring technologies can be synergistically organized to create a virtual medical system providing more continuous care centered on the patient rather than the bricks and mortar medical complex. Utilization of the digitalized patient health monitoring can facilitate diagnosis, treatment plans, physician-patient interaction, and accelerate the progress of medical research, education, and training. The field of cardiac electrophysiology has been an early adopter of this shift in care and serves as a paradigm applicable to all areas of medicine. The overall impact of this remote virtual care model on the quality of medical care and patient experience requires greater study, as well as vigilance as to the differences between technology and care in order to preserve the intangible and immeasurable factors that bring humanity to the art and science of medicine.

Potential role of antitachycardia pacing alerts for the reduction of emergency presentations following shocks in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators: implications for the implementation of remote monitoring

AIMS

Despite increased use of remote monitoring (RM) to follow up implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) recipients, many patients still receive ICD shocks in the community and present to the emergency department. Our aim was to identify the best predictors of impending shock delivery that can be measured with an ICD and to identify the most appropriate activities to alert physicians to during RM follow-up.

METHODS AND RESULTS

All patients presenting to our institution for ICD shock, from November 2011 to November 2014, were enrolled in this prospective study. Patient characteristics, investigation results, and details of electrical activities from ICD interrogation were recorded at presentation. Presentations were classified as potentially avoidable if activities from a list of set criteria were apparent more than 48 h before index shock. Univariate and multivariate analyses were then used to identify predictors of potentially avoidable shocks. In total, 109 emergency presentations were recorded in 90 patients (male: 85%; 57 ± 16 years; ischaemic cardiomyopathy: 49%; LVEF: 34 ± 13%; electrical storm: 40%), of which 26 (24%) were potentially avoidable. Antitachycardia pacing (ATP) episodes were the most important predictor of impending shock. Potentially avoidable shocks were preceded by more episodes of ATP than unavoidable shocks (13 [3-67] vs. 3 [0-10]; P < 0.001). Patients followed up with RM systems configured to generate alerts following ATP delivery experienced significantly less ICD shocks (24 vs. 16%, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Remote monitoring systems that generate alerts following ATP delivery could reduce emergency presentations for ICD shock by 24%, as ATP is a key predictor of impending shock delivery.

Remote monitoring improves outcome after ICD implantation: the clinical efficacy in the management of heart failure (EFFECT) study

AIMS

Internet-based remote interrogation systems have been shown to reduce emergency department and in-office visits in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), resulting in increased efficiency for healthcare providers. Nonetheless, studies sized to demonstrate the impact of remote monitoring on patients' outcome have been lacking.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The EFFECT study was a multicentre clinical trial aimed at measuring and comparing the outcome of ICD patients conventionally followed-up by means of in-clinic visits (Standard arm) or by remote monitoring (Remote arm) in the clinical practice of 25 Italian centres. From 2011 to 2013, 987 consecutive patients were enrolled and followed up for at least 12 months. The primary endpoint was the rate of death and cardiovascular hospitalizations. Remote monitoring was adopted by 499 patients. Patients in the Standard and Remote arms did not differ significantly in terms of baseline clinical characteristics, except for a more frequent use of ICD with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT-D) in the Remote arm (48 vs. 36%, P < 0.001). One-year rates of the primary combined endpoint were 0.27 events/year for patients in the Standard arm and were 0.15 events/year for those in the Remote arm (incident rate ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.41-0.73; P < 0.001). The endpoint rates in the Standard and Remote arms were 0.27 and 0.08 events/year, respectively, among CRT-D recipients (P < 0.001), and 0.28 vs. 0.21 among ICD patients (P = 0.094). The rates of in-office visits were 1.9 per year in the Standard arm and 1.7 per year in the Remote arm.

CONCLUSION

Compared with the standard follow-up through in-office visits, remote monitoring is associated with reduced death and cardiovascular hospitalizations in patients with ICD in clinical practice.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ Identifier: NCT01723865.

The modern EP practice: EHR and remote monitoring

Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) store clinically valuable, time-sensitive information regarding system integrity, arrhythmias, and heart failure parameters. Remote monitoring has impacted clinical practice by reducing scheduled office visits, providing protocols for device recalls and advisories, and facilitating the management of unscheduled encounters. The successful implementation of remote monitoring into clinical practice requires a new work flow and additional staff; the use of the electronic medical record to manage the data emanating from CIEDs poses an additional challenge. Solutions to these issues are discussed, and projections are made regarding the management of CIEDs in a modern electrophysiology practice.

Update on arrhythmias and cardiac pacing 2013

This report discusses a selection of the most relevant articles on cardiac arrhythmias and pacing published in 2013. The first section discusses arrhythmias, classified as regular paroxysmal supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, and ventricular arrhythmias, together with their treatment by means of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The next section reviews cardiac pacing, subdivided into resynchronization therapy, remote monitoring of implantable devices, and pacemakers. The final section discusses syncope.

Workflow, time and patient satisfaction from the perspectives of home monitoring

Remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices improves device surveillance and patient clinical management. The greatest challenge in implementing remote monitoring in standard practice is the need to develop new organizational models, capable of combining clinical effectiveness, low resource consumption, and patient acceptance. Since 2005, we developed a new model based on 'Primary Nursing' in which each patient is assigned to a nurse responsible for continuity of care. The model is essentially based on a cooperative interaction between the roles of an expert reference nurse and a responsible physician with an agreed list of respective tasks and responsibilities. After a pilot experience, the model was tested in a wide registry, the HomeGuide Registry, in which 1650 patients were enrolled. In this setting, remote monitoring sensitivity in detecting major cardiovascular events was very high (84%) with a positive predictive value of 97%. Overall, 95% of asymptomatic and 73% of actionable events were detected during remote monitoring sessions with a median reaction time of 3 days. Manpower was remarkably low: 55.5 min per health personnel per month every 100 patients. The strongest points of this model include strict definition of workflow, early reaction, traceability, continuity of care, maintaining human relationship with the patient. This model has been tested successfully even in a multicentre setting in the Model Project Monitor Centre study, in which one monitor centre screened daily remote monitoring data from nine satellite clinics.

Expert commentary: how well has the call from Heart Rhythm Society/European Heart Rhythm Association for improved device monitoring been answered?

This commentary highlights the benefits of remote device monitoring and explores some of the challenges implementation of this technology worldwide.

Remote monitoring costs, benefits, and reimbursement: a European perspective

AIMS

To provide a European perspective on reimbursement issues surrounding remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices in view of the anticipated costs and benefits.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Review of recent literature addressing clinical, economic, sociocultural, and technological factors associated with remote monitoring. When healthcare transformation is urgently needed, remote monitoring offers opportunities to innovate and cope with escalating costs and constrained resources, while improving patient safety, quality, and access to care as reflected in clinical studies. The introduction of remote monitoring into daily practice requires analysis of reimbursement policies to address funding scope, payment method, payer, price and allocation, and alignment with health system objectives and goals to ensure financial and operational sustainability of resources, infrastructure, and processes. Remote monitoring policies should gradually transition from activity-based, added-value services in a care-and-cure setting, to performance and outcome-oriented highlighting prevention, surveillance, and empowerment. By encouraging and rewarding innovation and interoperability, proprietary remote monitoring technologies can open up using standards and connect to support a growing evidence base that guides clinical decision support and planning of future policies.

CONCLUSION

Careful planning, sharing of experiences, and gradual adoption of reimbursement models that focus on outcome, performance, and cost-effectiveness are key aspects of containing escalating costs and improving quality and access to healthcare. Despite differences in health systems and payment methods in Europe, policy-makers, professional societies, payers, providers, and the industry need to join forces to transform healthcare and make innovation happen.