About 100 such devices have been implanted at eight centers across the country, and the Gill Heart Institute at UK is the only one to offer it in Kentucky. The device is unique because it allows doctors to monitor their patients conditions long distance. Information from the Chronicle IHM can be downloaded over the telephone to a secure Web site accessible to the UK heart failure team. For example, with this monitor, we can know how one of our heart failure patients from Eastern Kentucky is doing without the patient having to go to an emergency room, or drive two or three hours to Lexington. The device also may avoid the need for invasive procedures, such as certain forms of heart catheterization, in many patients.
Patients also keep a pocket diary to record symptoms and when they occur.
To match the diary entries to the data recorded by the Chronicle IHM, the patient passes a magnetic device over the implanted device in his or her chest. That triggers the Chronicle IHM to create a date and time stamp in its memory that coincides with the patient s personal diary. Information from the device can be downloaded in the physician s office. Such data can assist the health care team in adjusting the patient s treatment. Heart failure, a widespread and debilitating condition in which the heart does not pump enough blood to meet the body s demands, results in fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling, and a shortened life expectancy.