Royal Philips Electronics has announced a new service that provides Web-based remote monitoring follow-up services for patients with pacemakers. The new service, which was made available to cardiology practices in beta in August, is the first large-scale service of its kind in the United States.
Pacemakers are a critical part of treatment for patients with a wide range of heart conditions, and they must be checked frequently to ensure proper function. Philips has offered transtelephonic (data transmission via phone) follow-up services for 35 years and is now expanding its portfolio to include the latest pacemaker technology.
Remote monitoring is becoming standard for surveillance of patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices; scientific data has demonstrated remote monitoring allows earlier detection of patient issues than standard in-clinic follow up. Philips now brings more convenience and patient care quality to cardiology practices by conducting Web-based remote monitoring as Philips technicians review, summarise and triage each pacemaker test and provide clinically appropriate, customised notification to support timely and informed patient management for the physicians.
The team of Philips certified cardiographic technicians undergo intensive training and average more than 15 years of experience in pacemaker and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) follow-up. The technicians analyse and interpret more than 1,000 pacemaker transmissions per day, which enables them to spot even subtle abnormalities. This analysis resulted in a .009 percent error rate over the past 12 months. And with 24/7 surveillance, cardiologists are alerted to critical patient data in real-time, without having to be on-call. This service saves staff time and resources and means patients to do have to make as many office visits.
