Cardiac implant’s alerts can sharply reduce hospital admissions

‘Their condition can be continually monitored and action taken if there are signs of deterioration’

A MICROCHIP implanted in heart patients can alert doctors to potentially fatal changes, preventing tens of thousands of hospital admissions.

The remote alert system, fitted in patients already being given implanted devices such as pacemakers, means cardiac data is live streamed to hospital monitoring stations.

If risk thresholds are crossed, medics are automatically alerted, and contact patients for an immediate assessment.

The detailed information means doctors can prescribe changes in medication or dose levels, advise diet changes or summon patients in for further tests.

Experts said the system was a “potential game-changer”, saying its widespread rollout could “dramatically” cut hospital admissions.

The British research found the device could cut hospital admissions by almost 60 per cent, relieving NHS pressures.

Heart failure affects about 900,000 people in the UK with 60,000 new cases annually.

The study by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester involved 758 patients, from three local hospitals. Most had heart failure, and were fitted with a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD).

In total, 443 were monitored with the new Triagehf Plus alert system while 315 patients received standard care from their device.

Scientists found that the rate of hospitalisation was 58 per cent lower in patients whose devices were monitored by Triagehf Plus.

In this group, the remote alert system issued a total of 196 “high risk”’alerts, which led to a phone call assessment in 182 patients.

Of the 182 phone calls, 79 (43 per cent) were confirmed to have an acute medical issue, from which 44 people received a secondary intervention.

The initial phone consultation took an average of 10 minutes, with a nineminute follow-up call 30 days later.

Scientists said the system could “dramatically” reduce the number of hospitalisations and improve patient care with minimal staffing time.

There are around 100,000 hospital admissions each year for heart failure in the UK.

It is a common cause of unplanned admissions, and patients present with a variety of symptoms including breathlessness, chest pain and significant fluid retention.

Heart failure is a huge burden on the NHS, accounting for one million bed days per year, 2 per cent of the NHS total, and 5 per cent of all emergency admissions to hospital.

The research, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), was presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Barcelona.

Prof Sir Nilesh Samani, BHF medical director, said: “Heart failure is a debilitating disease that, in the more severe cases, requires repeated need for inpatient hospital care because of deterioration in the condition.

“This remote alert system is potentially a game-changer for people living with heart failure as their condition can be continually monitored and action taken if there are signs of deterioration thus reducing the need for hospitalisation.”