Technologies That Can Help in Treatment and Management of Heart Failure

MedTech Outlook | Tuesday, February 01, 2022

Technologies can completely transform patient care. Many technologies and technical systems can help people avoid hospitalization or death due to heart failure.

Fremont, CA: Around 8 million adults will be living with heart failure by 2030, a 50 percent increase from nearly two decades ago. Healthcare must do everything possible to provide these individuals with the resources they require to flourish following their diagnosis. This is where digital health and technology enter the picture. There is currently adequate evidence to suggest that it can assist both doctors and patients in managing heart failure and improving quality of life.

Technologies that are helping to treat and manage heart failures:

Monitoring remotely

While technology has been there for a while, it was put to good use during the COVID-19 epidemic, when many people with heart failure preferred to isolate themselves at home to protect themselves. Normally, we use a Holter monitor to track a patient's heart activity. This device is administered and fitted at the doctor's office. This allows us to ensure that the individual's treatment approach is effective. During the pandemic, however, this grew more difficult. Remote monitoring gadgets came to the rescue in this situation.

Implantable gadgets

Patients can now take remote monitoring a step further by having gadgets implanted in their homes that track their heart health. The CardioMEMS HF System is one of the newest. During surgery, a doctor inserts a tiny pressure-sensing device into the patient's pulmonary artery. They then take daily pulmonary artery pressure readings at home with a home electronics unit, and the data is sent to the heart failure medical team for review. The CHAMPION trial discovered that utilizing these types of implanted devices lowers heart failure hospitalizations by 28 percent.

Text messages

Ensuring patients take their medications on time, consume a nutritious diet, and exercise consistently is a vital element of heart failure management. Text check-ins from their doctor or treatment center can aid in this situation. A small trial of 60 patients with heart failure revealed that enrolling them in a text reminder program, as well as remote blood pressure and weight monitoring program, reduced their chances of being admitted to the hospital by 50 percent. Text messages have been shown to enhance prescription adherence in a variety of conditions, including heart disease, according to other studies.