Remote monitoring technology improves pacemaker performance

NEW YORK – A new pacemaker with advanced remote patient management capabilities is being used to treat patients with bradycardia, a condition in which the heart can’t beat fast enough, resulting in oxygen deprivation throughout the body.

St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital Center of New York are two of the first hospitals in the U.S. to utilize the new INGENIO pacemaker technology, developed by Boston Scientific.

"The INGENIO device enables physicians to treat pacemaker patients with an advanced and comprehensive set of therapies," said Emad Aziz, DO, attending in the Department of Medicine and Cardiology at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals. "The INGENIO pacemaker’s MV sensor is easy to optimize and will provide needed therapy for CI patients to help them feel less fatigued during physical activity."

INGENIO pacemakers feature RightRate technology, which uses a minute ventilation (MV) sensor and adds programming options that promote ease-of-use and overall in-clinic time savings. Officials say the MV sensor is the only sensor clinically proven to restore chronotropic competence. Chronotropic Incompetence (CI) is the inability of the heart to regulate its rate appropriately in response to physical activity, which may cause patients to feel tired or short of breath during daily activities such as walking or carrying groceries. CI affects up to 42 percent of pacemaker patients.

The pacemaker will also have the capacity to transmit implantable cardiac device data from the device to physicians and other healthcare providers. Boston Scientific’s new remote patient management system, currently under review by the FDA, will allow physicians to conduct remote follow-ups of these device patients to monitor specific device information and heart health status. The system will also detect clinical events between scheduled visits and send relevant data directly to a secure website, which can be accessed by physicians. This wireless technology will allow patients to transmit data to physicians from most locations in North America without the need for landline-based technology.