Heart monitor to telephone the doctor with critical data

Heart failure patients at the Ohio State University Heart Center in the US may be seeing less of their doctors. And the doctors couldn't be happier.

A group of patients is testing an implantable monitor that transmits critical data from their heart over the telephone, eliminating travel to the doctor's office for the same type of monitoring.

Within minutes of viewing the transmitted data from any location with computer access, the physician, if needed, can make adjustments to the patients' medication or prescribe additional therapy.

But patient convenience is not the biggest benefit the device has to offer. Data from the monitor often can indicate serious cardiac events are on the horizon days before actual physical symptoms occur.

The Chronicle Implantable Hemodynamic Monitor is about the size of a folded matchbook and is implanted in the upper chest. A sensor attached to the monitor is threaded through a vein into the heart's right ventricle, where it measures heart rate, heart temperature and blood pressure inside the heart.

Patients pass a magnetic 'wand' over their chest to send a signal to the device to transmit data to a doctor via a telephone hookup. Some pacemakers use the same type of technology to relay data, but the information is limited mostly to the condition of the pacemaker and its battery.

The device, made by Medtronic, has not been approved for general use. However, data accumulated by researchers at Ohio State and other test sites could lead to US Food and Drug Administration approval of the device in the next two to three years.