Remote monitoring of heart failure – keeping patients out of hospital

REmote Monitoring: an evaluation of implantable devices for management of Heart Failure patients- REM-HF

Heart failure is a debilitating disease that can make even the most basic exercise difficult. Treating and managing heart failure is a major strain on the NHS budget, but it is a difficult condition for doctors to monitor. Some patients with heart failure have gadgets inserted under their skin which help monitor their heartbeat pattern – and can deliver an electric shock when needed to prevent the heart from stopping. But these gadgets also give hope of monitoring heart activity more accurately than before, transmitting information back to doctors remotely. Using this information doctors could monitor patients closely without the need for unnecessary and costly hospital admissions. This new programme, led by Professor John Morgan, aims to work out if a remote monitoring system can really improve care for patients with heart failure. Patients with these gadgets under their skin will go online once every week, sending detailed records of their heart condition back to doctors. The project aims to discover whether such a system could be a cost-effective way of caring for heart patients in the UK. Bringing together 2,000 patients from nine different centres, researchers will follow two separate groups of patients – one group with a specific type of remote monitoring device, and one without – comparing their health and wellbeing over five years. In the future this sort of technology might help patients avoid repeated hospital admissions, and improve their quality of life.