Remote Active Monitoring in Patients with Heart Failure (RAPID-RF): design and rationale.

BACKGROUND

Heart failure (HF) ambulatory disease management programs appear to offer the greatest benefit to HF patients at highest risk, defined as having New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional Class III or IV symptoms. The Latitude Patient Management System is the first HF management tool to use wireless telemetry present in a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) device that is linked to remotely collect blood pressure and weight measures, permitting a single transmission reporting device data. Potential advantages of this system include ease of data transmissions, correlation among measures of HF status, arrhythmic events, and device performance. However, the use and ultimate utility of these combined features for patient management are untested.

METHODS AND RESULTS

The Remote Active Monitoring in Patients with Heart Failure (RAPID-RF) study is a multicenter registry that will enroll up to 1000 patients on the Latitude Patient Management System from approximately 100 centers. The primary objective is to examine physician responses to Latitude Active Monitoring data alerts by assessing alert-related medical interventions. Minimum follow-up will be 3 months after implant with a maximum follow-up time of 24 months after implant.

CONCLUSIONS

The RAPID-RF study will provide important preliminary data on how remotely collected HF and arrhythmic surveillance data alter the management of HF patients with CRT-D devices.