Medtronic starts trial of remote patient monitoring system

Medtronic has announced the start of a trial investigating the role of its remote patient monitoring system in the improvement of patient care and reduction of healthcare costs.

The Connect trial will assess the effect of the company’s Conexus Wireless Telemetry remote monitoring devices. It will investigate the effectiveness of the company’s CareLink Network that monitors patients with the Concerto cardiac resynchronisation therapy-defibrillator and Virtuoso implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.

Steve Mahle, president of cardiac rhythm disease management at Medtronic, said: “We expect the data collected in the Connect study will show that by making clinical decisions earlier based on our remote patient monitoring system, healthcare utilisation costs can be shifted away from more acute – and costly – intervention.”

He added that adjustments made to patient treatment earlier, such as changes to medication and programming alterations, can prevent diseases from progressing to the extent where serious and expensive treatment may be necessary.

In September, Medtronic presented data to the World Congress of Cardiology showing that long-term treatment with cardiac resynchronisation therapy, including CRT-D therapy with an implantable cardio defibrillator, is a financially efficient method for improving the survival rates of patients experiencing heart failure.