Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the organisation of health care in Italy, with an acceleration in the development of telemedicine. To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the spread of remote monitoring (RM) of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) in Italy, a survey addressed to cardiologists operating in all Italian CIED-implanting centres was launched. A total of 127 cardiologists from 116 Italian arrhythmia centres took part in the survey, 41.0% of all 283 CIED-implanting centres operating in Italy in 2019. All participating centres declared to use RM of CIEDs. COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase in the use of RM in 83 (71.6%) participating centres. In a temporal perspective, an increase in the median number of patients per centre followed up by RM was found from 2012 to 2017, followed by an exponential increase from 2017 to 2020. In 36 participating centres (31.0%) a telehealth visits service was activated as a replacement for in-person outpatient visits (in patients with or without CIED) during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic has caused an acceleration in the use of RM of CIEDs and in the use of telemedicine in the clinical practice of cardiology.
Highlights
Remote monitoring (RM) of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) by means of telemonitoring allows technical information to be obtained on the operation of the device—avoiding patients having to access the hospital for checking—
The survey was open to cardiologists operating in all Italian cardiac CIED-implanting centres
The centres which participated in the survey accounted for 41.0% of all 283 CIED-implanting centres operating in Italy in 2019 [3]
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the organisation of health care in Italy, with a drastic reduction in hospital access and traditional controls [1]. Many cardiology departments were closed to be converted into COVID-19 departments. A wider application of telecardiology was promoted, in order to follow cardiac patients at distance [2]. Remote monitoring (RM) of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) by means of telemonitoring allows technical information to be obtained on the operation of the device—avoiding patients having to access the hospital for checking—
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