Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight - October/November 2009
Recent advances in patient monitoring technology present a number of opportunities for remote monitoring and self-monitoring of patients outside the clinical setting. While the data captured during real-life situations is of value, not every segment of the health care market is rushing to embrace the latest technology advances in this area, for a variety of reasons. In particular, the market for implantable cardiac rhythm devices sticks out as an area where many physicians (and manufacturers as well) are simply not sure how to utilize all the data that could be harvested via the latest remote monitoring technology. Read more...
Remote Patient Monitoring: Roadblocks to Full Adoption
Article preview reprinted from Medtech Insight - October/November 2009
Although technology is the backbone of advancements and improvements in health care, there are times when the pace of technological achievements runs faster than they can be utilized. That is certainly the case with some of the recent advances in patient monitoring technology that present a number of opportunities for remote monitoring and self-monitoring of patients outside the clinical setting. While it is logical to assume more data—especially data captured during real-life situations—is of value, not every segment of the health care market is rushing to embrace the latest technology advances in this area, for a variety of reasons.
In particular, the market for implantable cardiac rhythm devices sticks out as an area where many physicians (and manufacturers as well) are simply not sure how to utilize all the data that could be harvested via the latest remote monitoring technology. The major medical device players in this field—Boston Scientific Corp., St. Jude Medical Inc., and Medtronic Inc.—all say they'd like to see expanded use by physicians of the type of data that could come from implantable devices. However, to make that a reality, there needs to be a clear market for those types of products, which means there will have to be a strong demand from physicians or patients—or both—and that has not happened yet for many of these technologies.
Current Monitoring Technology Is Valuable
Certainly, the pacemakers and implantable defibrillators currently on the market already have remote monitoring capabilities that have proven valuable to both physicians and patients. Medtronic, for example, reports that clinical data show remote monitoring of implantable cardioverter defibrillators and pacemakers, when used in conjunction with the company's CareLink Network, can detect clinically actionable events more quickly than with traditional in-office follow-up visits. Similar outcomes were observed in the TRUST study sponsored by Biotronik GMBH & Co., a leader in this market in Europe. TRUST demonstrated that detection of clinical events and device problems using Biotronik's wireless, remote Home Monitoring system resulted in earlier intervention and better outcomes than can be achieved using conventional in-office follow-up.
To be sure, manufacturers in this field have worked diligently to engineer systems that make it easier for physicians to monitor their patients outside clinical settings. Data being transmitted from implantable cardiac devices focuses on detecting arrhythmias or early heart failure decompensation, as well as monitoring the status of the implantable device itself. However, there is a growing interest in seeing more usable data become available directly to patients, who are an important driving force in the overall growth of recent product introductions in health care's emerging wireless revolution.
Remote patient monitoring in the cardiovascular space was one of the chief points of discussion at a recent seminar sponsored by the University of Southern California (USC) Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. The USC Body Computing Symposium is in its third year of gathering leading industry representatives from the IT, device, physician, and consumer communities. This year's seminar featured a panel that included John Lalonde, VP of Research & Development at Boston Scientific; Marshall Stanton, MD, VP of Clinical Research for Medtronic; and Mike Lepp, VP of external products at St. Jude.
IT Companies Ready to Lead, but Challenges Abound
Despite the growing interest in expanding monitoring capabilities from the IT sector, all three executives agreed that developing the appropriate technology is not nearly as big a challenge as finding a way to monetize that technology. A number of IT firms with great interest in becoming more involved in health care seem ready to collaborate with medical device manufacturers on products that can transmit data to smart phones, iPods, and an array of remote, consumer-oriented devices. However, the cardiac rhythm management (CRM) and heart failure markets are thus far proving to be more challenging for companies to plug into the growing wireless movement.
- Robert Neil
Purchase this article online as a PDF and receive it immediately via email. Questions? Call (800) 332-2181. 100% Satis faction Guaranteed. Subscribe to Medtech Insight.
Companies mentioned in this article:
About Medtech Insight
Medtech Insight newsletter provides insights into the technology and market developments (devices, instrumentation, biomaterials, gene therapy, tissue engineering, etc.) impacting a wide range of surgical and non-surgical clinical practices.
Comments