Introduction

The advantages of remote patient monitoring have long been obvious to the medical community. It not only reduces the number of trips patients must make to a clinic, but it may also assist caregivers in detecting a problem before the patient requires a visit to an emergency room or hospitalization.

In our technologically linked society, remote monitoring has gotten enormously easier. Smartphones and tablets may now be used for anything from texting and listening to music to monitoring vital signs and sending reminders. More significantly, they are progressively becoming an integral part of healthcare delivery. In actuality, over 100,000 healthcare applications are currently in use by patients, caregivers, and specialists. As technology has advanced and becomes more accessible, utilizing an app on a mobile device is expanding its appeal from millennial users to patients of all ages, from youngsters to elders.

Overview

Everything has changed with the advent smartphones and tablets, as well as increasingly prevalent access to Wi-Fi or cellular connections. One of the most recent breakthroughs is MyCareLink SmartTM, the world’s first app-based remote monitoring system for pacemakers, which Medtronic launched in Canada in January of this year. This new programme allows patients with certain pacemakers to use their smartphone to send pacemaker data to their clinic. It’s a lot easier than dealing with the pacemaker company’s specialized technology.

Benefits

The fact that a person may use his smartphone to transmit pacemaker signals from the comfort of his own home is a fantastic example of how simple and efficient this technology is. Not only is the technology common to most patients and family members, but it also means that monitoring and reporting can be done from practically anywhere in the globe with an internet connection. Patients who are on the go can also send the information to a healthcare professional, guaranteeing all monitoring schedules are followed. This information can also be exchanged with a close relative. If a physician detects a problem with the pacemaker based on the transmitted data, the system reduces the time to receive treatment, less time spent at a doctor’s office or clinic for regular pacemaker checks, and, preferably, increased overall survival and decreased length of stay ( los ) if a physician is able to treat a medical problem quite quickly, according to Medtronic officials. Offering patients this level of convenience might also boost patient engagement.

How the technology works

The BlueSync Field Evaluation is titled after Medtronic’s BlueSync® technology, which require low Bluetooth® wireless telemetry to enable patients to use their own smart device, including a smartphone or tablet, to directly monitor their new-generation pacemaker or biventricular pacemaker (including cardiac resynchronization therapy [CRT] pacemakers). Patients accomplish this by utilizing an app-based platform, the MyCareLink HeartTM App, which can communicate pacemaker data to patient management networks, such as CareLinkTM, without the use of a typical bedside monitor. End-to-end encryption protects the pacemaker data.

Success rate of this technology

Outside of the trials, the researchers followed planned transmission success for 811 patients using the MyCareLink Heart App for at least 12 months to obtain a feel of real-world use of the BlueSync technology. The success rate among these patients (mean age, 69 years; 62 percent male) was 92.8 percent, which was very close to the 94.6 percent rate in the official BlueSync assessment group.

Conclusively

“The technology around us is always evolving, but fortunately it is also developing to fit the demands of cardiac devices like pacemakers,” Dr. Krebs explains. Producers have surely come up with measures to reduce magnetic exposure to pacemakers and insulate them from as much electromagnetic interference as possible.” Individuals must recognize, however, that there is always the potential of interference, and the greatest protection is behavior or lifestyle changes to adapt the technology around them.

Citations

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