Home... it’s where the remote heart monitor is
In many areas the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust is leading the way in terms of solutions to improve patient safety and experience. Jackie Butler looks at the organisation’s pioneering strides in remote cardiac device monitoring, virtual clinics, sharing
For cardiac physiologist Duncan Sleeman it’s an everyday norm to track the health of heart patients in Cornwall by monitoring their implanted devices remotely as they go about their daily business.
NHS cardiac departments throughout the country are using this pioneering initiative – however this is one of many advances making Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust a frontrunner in terms of technological and forward-thinking developments.
Since being introduced in the county, remote cardiac monitoring has been saving the lives of those whose health suddenly deteriorates, as well as drastically reducing the need for patients who are managing well to come to hospital, either attending day clinics or staying overnight.
Everyone who has an internal defibrillator or complex device fitted at the Royal Cornwall Hospital is sent home from the Cardiac Department with an electronic gadget which in some cases can be carried with them during the day or is plugged in next to the bed at night. It transmits vital information about how their heart is performing back to the hospital via a central server.
“It’s like having a senior physiologist watching over you 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” says Duncan. “In the early hours of the morning the device talks to the cardio implant and tells us about how the patient is doing – how their heart is functioning, how mobile they have been, and even how the device is functioning itself.”
Anomalies detected electronically are followed up by the physiologists who trace variations in heart function. When there are concerns, they can contact the patient’s GP to give the appropriate treatment – additional drugs, for ex- ample – then remotely watch how his or her heart is working over the next few days.
In an emergency, implanted devices have algorithms to detect what the problem is and some will take appropriate action. If a patient goes into a life threatening cardiac rhythm while he is out shopping, for example, his implant can trigger a shock to try and normalise his heart rhythm. The remote monitor can also send an alert, relaying this information to the cardiac team.
“By the time paramedics bring him in, we will know what has happened and we have the potential to have a consultant cardiologist waiting for him,” explains Duncan, who joined the cardiac team three years ago.
As a department they keep a keen eye on global technological advances in the testing, monitoring and treatment fields. Cornwall is currently one of only two centres in the country trialling an ECG device called a MyoVista, created by American company
‘It’s like having a senior physiologist watching you 24/7’