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 ) .
Managing heart failure care using an internet-based telemedicine system.
BACKGROUND Managing patients with heart failure ( HF ) is labor intensive , and follow-up is often inadequate to detect day-to-day changes that ultimately lead to decompensation . We tested the effect of an Internet-based telemedicine ( T ) system that provides frequent surveillance and increased communicate between HF patients and their provider on frequency of hospitalization in a cohort of patients with advanced HF . METHODS AND RESULTS HF patients in NYHA Class II-IV were r and omized to usual care ( UC , n = 24 ) or T ( T plus UC , n = 24 ) and followed for 1 year .  Office visits , emergency department visits , hospitalizations , telephone calls , and number of Internet communications were measured over the 1-year period . Left ventricular ejection fraction ( EF ) was assessed by echocardiography in both groups . For T , mean age was 53.2 + /- 2.0 years ( 72 % male , 61 % Caucasian , 39 % African American ) . For UC , mean age was 54.1 + /- 2.6 years ( 76 % male , 72 % Caucasian , 14 % African American , and 14 % Hispanic ) .  HF etiologies and EF were similar in both groups . During the 12-month period , UC had 74 total phone calls to the practice , whereas T had 88 telephone calls plus 1887 telemedicine data messages ( 6.5 messages/patient/month ) . ER visits were lower in the T group ( T 5 , UC 12 ; P < .05 ) . Hospital admissions ( T 24 , C 40 ; P = .025 ) and total hospital days ( T 84 , UC 226 days ; P < .005 ) were lower in T. Unscheduled clinic visits ( T 13 , UC 13 ; P = NS ) and scheduled clinic visits ( T 78 , UC 94 ; P = NS ) were similar in both groups . CONCLUSIONS Frequent monitoring and patient management using a telemedicine system may help to reduce hospitalizations , hospital days , and emergency department visits
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 ) .