Workflow, time and patient satisfaction from the perspectives of home monitoring

Remote monitoring of cardiac implantable electronic devices improves device surveillance and patient clinical management. The greatest challenge in implementing remote monitoring in standard practice is the need to develop new organizational models, capable of combining clinical effectiveness, low resource consumption, and patient acceptance. Since 2005, we developed a new model based on 'Primary Nursing' in which each patient is assigned to a nurse responsible for continuity of care. The model is essentially based on a cooperative interaction between the roles of an expert reference nurse and a responsible physician with an agreed list of respective tasks and responsibilities. After a pilot experience, the model was tested in a wide registry, the HomeGuide Registry, in which 1650 patients were enrolled. In this setting, remote monitoring sensitivity in detecting major cardiovascular events was very high (84%) with a positive predictive value of 97%. Overall, 95% of asymptomatic and 73% of actionable events were detected during remote monitoring sessions with a median reaction time of 3 days. Manpower was remarkably low: 55.5 min per health personnel per month every 100 patients. The strongest points of this model include strict definition of workflow, early reaction, traceability, continuity of care, maintaining human relationship with the patient. This model has been tested successfully even in a multicentre setting in the Model Project Monitor Centre study, in which one monitor centre screened daily remote monitoring data from nine satellite clinics.