Sane Approach to Optimizing the Workload in Remote Monitoring of Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices

BACKGROUND: Remote monitoring offers an effective and safe method for monitoring patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices. The downside of remote monitoring is the overflow of the data. Since many of the remote monitoring transmissions are nonactionable, optimizing alert transmissions could partly overcome this problem. METHODS: We collected data on the number and the causes of all alert-, scheduled-, and patient-initiated transmissions as well as actions initiated by these transmissions in 2023. According to our strategy, all clinically nonrelevant alerts were turned off. The trend of alert transmissions and the proportion of actionable scheduled transmissions are presented. The patient safety was monitored by analyzing the premortem alerts and changes to alert settings in deceased patients, as well as the rate of actionable scheduled or patient-initiated transmissions during follow-up. RESULTS: During the study period 8182 transmissions were generated from 3732 cardiovascular implantable electronic devices. Of these, 2306 (28%) were alert transmissions, of which 57% (n=1290) were considered clinically nonrelevant. The rate of alerts decreased by 44% from January to December (0.07 versus 0.04 per device per month, P =0.001). Of the 3335 scheduled transmissions, 11% (364) were actionable, and the proportion of actionable scheduled transmissions remained unchanged during the follow-up period ( P =0.08). Notably, none of the deaths were linked to the adjustment of alert settings. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicated that active evaluation of the clinical relevance of all alert transmissions and deactivation of clinically nonrelevant alerts reduce the remote monitoring workload. However, long-term follow-up is needed to ensure that patient safety is not compromised.