Remote Monitoring of Patients with Implanted Cardiac Devices – A Review

Abstract

There has been a rapid growth in the number of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), due to the consistent good results from large randomised trials and changing worldwide demographics with progressive ageing in all developed countries. Early generations of CIEDs provided only basic operations and stored only rudimentary data, but the evolution of all types of CIEDs (pacemakers, defibrillators, cardiac resynchronisation devices, implantable monitors) has led to their increased complexity and the development of a myriad of specialised features. As an outgrowth of this increased sophistication, once implanted, CIEDs can provide significant amounts of important clinical information, allowing to identify the presence of significant arrhythmias, assess drug efficacy, evaluate heart failure status and continuously monitor device function. With the advent of new methods of remote monitoring, the information recorded by these devices can be accessible in real time and thus lead to more timely clinical decision-making. This article summarises the impact of remote monitoring on clinical practice today and how the use of remote monitoring may evolve to affect the practice of medicine in the future.