[STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTATIONS OF REMOTE MONITORING FOR PATIENTS WITH CARDIOVASCULAR IMPLANTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES...

Remote monitoring (RM) of patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIED) offers clinical benefits by providing early alert for system failure and actionable changes in patient health. Professional societies recommend utilization of RM for CIED patients (Level of recommendation I Level of evidence A). It must be emphasized that RM technology does not provide continuous monitoring but rather "remote snapshot clinics". On the other hand, pacemakers (PCM) and implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICD) are designed to work automatically and continuously without any need for immediate external intervention. Therefore, the guidelines recommend that the clinical response to RM notification will take place during the normal office hours. With appropriate organization, the utilization of RM will save a significant number of unnecessary pacemaker clinic visits and will allow better utilization of healthcare resources on patients in whom early intervention may prevent hospitalization, complication and mortality. The guidelines recommend offering RM to all patients with CIED. In Israel however, RM is offered sporadically only to a few patients. If a patient will suffer from delayed or inadequate treatment due to lack of RM, grave ethical and legal consequences may occur. Follow-up of CIED patients utilizing RM should be performed by a team including a primary physician, primary cardiologist, electrophysiologist, nurses and CIED technologist working in concert utilizing modern information technologies. Data should be shared electronically (with strict data security protocols) utilizing the electronic patient file with secure connection to RM systems. In summary, we believe that RM should be offered to all CIED patients in Israel.