Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .
Impact of Remote Telemedical Management on Mortality and Hospitalizations in Ambulatory Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: The Telemedical Interventional Monitoring in Heart Failure Study
Background — This study was design ed to determine whether physician-led remote telemedical management ( RTM ) compared with usual care would result in reduced mortality in ambulatory patients with chronic heart failure ( HF ) . Methods and Results — We enrolled 710 stable chronic HF patients in New York Heart Association functional class II or III with a left ventricular ejection fraction ⩽35 % and a history of HF decompensation within the previous 2 years or with a left ventricular ejection fraction ⩽25 % . Patients were r and omly assigned ( 1:1 ) to RTM or usual care . Remote telemedical management used portable devices for ECG , blood pressure , and body weight measurements connected to a personal digital assistant that sent automated encrypted transmission via cell phones to the telemedical centers . The primary end point was death from any cause . The first secondary end point was a composite of cardiovascular death and hospitalization for HF . Baseline characteristics were similar between the RTM ( n=354 ) and control ( n=356 ) groups . Of the patients assigned to RTM , 287 ( 81 % ) were at least 70 % compliant with daily data transfers and no break for > 30 days ( except during hospitalizations ) . The median follow-up was 26 months ( minimum 12 ) , and was 99.9 % complete . Compared with usual care , RTM had no significant effect on all-cause mortality ( hazard ratio , 0.97 ; 95 % confidence interval , 0.67 to 1.41 ; P=0.87 ) or on cardiovascular death or HF hospitalization ( hazard ratio , 0.89 ; 95 % confidence interval , 0.67 to 1.19 ; P=0.44 ) . Conclusions — In ambulatory patients with chronic HF  , RTM compared with usual care was not associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality . Clinical Trial Registration : — URL : http://www . Clinical Trials.gov . Unique identifier : NCT00543881
Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .