The RITMOCORE outcome-based service model with remote monitoring was implemented in 937 pacemaker patients, meeting quality objectives and enabling proactive interventions during the first year.
Observational (n=937)
Yes
An ageing European population translates in a steady growth in the demand for pacemakers. Budgetary constraints in healthcare systems call for innovative solutions to meet this rising demand while safeguarding the quality of care. The current approach generally consists in reducing the price per device by aggregating purchases, but this means that the pacemakers purchased by healthcare systems are of the lower range, and that suppliers, to make up for the discount, cut back on services they offer. Meanwhile, the newer, higher range pacemaker models offer possibilities such as remote monitoring. This means clinicians, already overworked, do not have access to technologies that could significantly decrease the time resources required per patient in the follow-up stages of the care pathway. Patients, on the other hand, receive lower quality follow-up in a care pathway that is already fragmented, and where general practitioners lack the necessary information to provide them with a comprehensive care. RITMOCORE, a Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) project funded by the European Union under Horizon2020, was set up in 2016 to transform the care pathway of patients suffering from bradycardias and implanted with a pacemaker. The model proposed by RITMOCORE posits a shift from purchasing devices to purchasing services, where payments are outcome based (thus distributing the risk between the parties), and where services are supported by advanced ICT systems that make remote monitoring possible. Following-up patients by remote monitoring means identifying problems earlier, preventing comorbidities, and reducing costs of transportation for patients and time demands on clinicians. RITMOCORE’s model uses the ICT platforms that support remote monitoring to help coordinate care by making the data available to all clinicians involved in a patient’s care pathway and informing patients. By continuously collecting data on patients’ status and activating alerts only when necessary, the model reduces the need to contact specialists for routine visits, facilitating transfer of follow-up activities towards primary care and saving considerable resources. The model also helps empower patients to assume greater responsibilities in their own care, paving the way towards the implementation of resource-efficient models of self-care. RITMOCORE’s model is currently being implemented in Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and Hospital Universitari Bellvitge, both in Cataluña, where 937 patients are being remotely monitored. The implementation is expected to validate the model and generate evidence of its advantages in view of future scale-ups. During a first year of progressive implementation, its effectiveness is already being demonstrated: quality objectives have been met and the alert algorithms have been fine-tuned allowing proactive intervention in a number of dangerous situations for patients. We are looking forward to presenting the data on these milestones at EHMA2022. (https: //2022. ehmaconference. org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EHMA-2022-Abstract-Book₂3-06-2022V2. pdf)
Moreno et al. (Thu,) conducted a observational in Bradycardia requiring a pacemaker (n=937). RITMOCORE model (outcome-based service purchasing with remote monitoring) was evaluated. The RITMOCORE outcome-based service model with remote monitoring was implemented in 937 pacemaker patients, meeting quality objectives and enabling proactive interventions during the first year.