New Way To Help Heart Failure Patients

Writer: Robert Valenzuela on Aug 9 2010.

Findings from the latest Cochrane Systematic Review, made by an international team of researchers, revealed that there is a reduction in death and hospital admittances for patients with chronic heart failure by giving them the right to use remote monitoring, such as by telephone or telemonitoring using wireless technology and may help bring down expenses concerning health care benefits and increase the value of life.

Patient monitoring, which weighs heavily on health care services, can be made possible by using remote monitoring which can ease up on resources especially for circumstances such as involving chronic heart failure. Patients will call in their vital signs, in a programmed telephone system, such as heart rate and rhythm, blood pressure and weight, over the phone, while telemonitoring normally employs digital, wireless or Bluetooth transmission of data to a heart specialist.

In evaluating both these technologies involved in the customary tending for patients with chronic heart failure, the assessment integrated the results comprising of more than 9,500 volunteers.

Because of the extra resources, results that afforded increased specialist follow-up to patients in the intervention and/or control arms were not included.

These may have influenced the propriety of the intervention.

Particulars on causes of deaths and hospital confinements involving 25 cases assessed by associates were examined and evaluated.

The period with which these follow-up examinations were held lasted from 3 to 18 months with most of the results coming in after 12 months.

The effect of telemonitoring was encouraging resulting to a decrease in fatalities involving patients with chronic heart failure: 102 for every 1000 patients, as against, 154 for every 1000 patients in the control cluster.

There was, however, no palpable result observed on mortality for patients in these tests ((112 per 1000 vs. 127 per 1000 in the control group) involving programmed telephone system.

Both programmed telephone system and telemonitoring have a significant effect in minimizing the amount of hospital confinements affecting patients with worsening heart failure.

Hospital admittances resulting from heart failure happened at a rate 164 per 1000 patients with programmed telephone system in comparison to 213 in a control cluster, and at a rate of 225 per 1000 patients in comparison to 285 in a control cluster.

“There are benefits of structured telephone support and telemonitoring for patients with chronic heart failure,” said lead researcher Dr Sally Inglis of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia. “These technologies can provide specialised care to a large number of patients who otherwise may have limited access to this type of specialised healthcare.”

Some studies also showed patients’ quality of life improved and that health care costs had been reduced. “More work is required on the cost-effectiveness of telemonitoring to establish the best business models. These may vary depending on the local organisation of health services. The optimal duration of monitoring has not yet been addressed” said Dr Inglis.

Only individual studies are included in these evaluations.

Some examinations were not as well carried out or accounted as the authors would have intended them to be, a position acknowledged in an Editorial published to supplement the evaluation.

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