Telemonitoring in cardiology offers substantial economic and organizational gains, although clear evidence of clinical benefits over standard care is still lacking in many instances.
Does telemedicine improve outcomes in cardiovascular patients compared to standard care?
Telemedicine offers substantial organizational and economic benefits in cardiology, particularly for arrhythmia and heart failure monitoring, though robust clinical evidence versus standard care remains limited.
The registration of physical signals has long been an important part of cardiological diagnostics. Current technology makes it possible to send large amounts of data to remote locations. Solutions that enable diagnosis and treatment without direct contact with patients are of enormous value, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, as the elderly require special protection. The most important examples of telemonitoring in cardiology include the use of implanted devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators, as well as wearable sensors and data processing units. The arrythmia detection and monitoring patients with heart failure are the best studied in the clinical setting, although in many instances we still lack clear evidence of benefits of remote approaches vs. standard care. Monitoring for ischemia is less well studied. It is clear however that the economic and organizational gains of telemonitoring for healthcare systems are substantial. Both patients and healthcare professionals have expressed an enormous demand for the further development of such technologies. In addition to these subjects, in this paper we also describe the safety concerns associated with transmitting and storing potentially sensitive personal data.
Kędzierski et al. (Tue,) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease. Telemedicine in cardiology vs. Standard care was evaluated. Telemonitoring in cardiology offers substantial economic and organizational gains, although clear evidence of clinical benefits over standard care is still lacking in many instances.