Initial experiences with a telemedicine framework for remote pacemaker follow-up.
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Date
2007-10-23
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Abstract
According to international guidelines implanted cardiac pacemakers PM have to be checked periodically to ensure that they are working correctly To spare a significant number of patients the burden of traveling to specialized PM clinics a telemedicine framework has been developed prototypically A mobile personal digital assistant PDA based PM follow up unit provides the caregiver at the point of care with the necessary infrastructure to perform a basic PM follow up examination remotely In case of detected malfunction of the PM the patient is ordered to the hospital for further examination The system has been evaluated in a clinical pilot trial on 44 patients with a total of 23 different PM models from 8 different manufacturers The initial results indicate the potential of the concept to work as an efficient manufacturer independent screening method with the ultimate goal to increase the safety quality and efficiency of PM therapy