Arrhythnology Department, Maria Cecilia Hospital, Cotignola, Italy.
Clinical Research, BIOTRONIK Italia S.p.a, Vimodrone, Italy.
Acta Cardiol. 2021 Apr;76(2):158-161. doi: 10.1080/00015385.2020.1847459. Epub 2020 Nov 18.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the ability of health care organisations to provide adequate care. We report the experience of a national tertiary electrophysiology centre in the management of patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) through the use of a fully remote follow-up model.
We daily and prospectively collected remote monitoring (RM) relevant findings and following clinical actions performed from March 10 to April 3 2020, a period of suspension of routine ambulatory activity due to the national lockdown.
During the study period (25 days), we received 2,215 transmissions from 2,955 devices. Among them, 129 patients reported potential clinically actionable RM observations (event rate: 12.0/1000 patient-week). In 77 patients (60%), RM events triggered a clinical action, but only 5 patients needed an urgent in-hospital access (4 urgent procedures and 1 device reprogramming).
In the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, RM became an essential tool in healthcare delivery for CIED patients. We observed that RM was effective in "keep people safe" and "focus only on individuals with health care needs".
COVID-19 大流行挑战了医疗机构提供充分护理的能力。我们报告了一个国家三级电生理中心在使用完全远程随访模式管理心脏植入式电子设备（CIED）患者方面的经验。
我们从 2020 年 3 月 10 日至 4 月 3 日，逐日前瞻性地收集远程监测（RM）相关发现和随后的临床操作，这是由于全国封锁而暂停常规门诊活动的时期。
在研究期间（25 天），我们从 2955 个设备收到了 2215 次传输。其中，129 名患者报告了潜在的具有临床意义的 RM 观察结果（事件发生率：12.0/1000 患者-周）。在 77 名患者（60%）中，RM 事件触发了临床操作，但只有 5 名患者需要紧急住院治疗（4 次紧急程序和 1 次设备重新编程）。
在史无前例的 COVID-19 大流行期间，RM 成为 CIED 患者医疗保健服务的重要工具。我们观察到 RM 在“保护人们安全”和“只关注有医疗需求的个体”方面是有效的。
