Home Monitoring: Continuous Care For Your Heart

If you have been fitted with a pacemaker, defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization device, your doctor may also choose to monitor your heart remotely on an on-going basis. Find out how BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring® works and which benefits it offers. 

Patient

What is BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring?

Your pacemaker, defibrillator or cardiac resynchronization therapy device consists of a small pulse generator and special wires, so-called leads. The leads can carry small electrical impulses to your heart and can also relay information about the heart’s rate and rhythm back to your device. This information can be accessed by your cardiologist during your follow-up visits.  

With BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring, your physician can review your cardiovascular data not just when you meet during a follow-up visit but from anywhere in the world and every day. You can ask your doctor if your heart device allows for remote monitoring. 

Doctor holding heart devices in his hands

Why Is Continuous Heart Monitoring Beneficial?

Monitoring your heart remotely can help to detect any changes in the heart rhythm – also when you are not at the doctor’s office. Patients often do not even notice these abnormal heart rhythms, such as atrial fibrillation, because at first, they may not even cause any symptoms.  

In heart failure patients, remote monitoring can help to recognize warning signals at an early stage as well. Heart failure means that the heart muscle is too weak to pump enough blood around the body and to supply all organs with enough oxygen and energy. In heart failure patients that are monitored remotely, physicians may be able to intervene earlier to prevent the heart function from deteriorating acutely.  

Benefits for patients and physicians: 

  • Provides continuous care 
  • Provides early detection to enable early interventions—improving outcomes1,2 for patients 
  • Reduces mortality2,3 
  • Can safely and efficiently reduce and replace face-to-face follow ups1,4,5 
TEST Home Monitoring

How Does BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring Work?

BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is highly reliable and simple to use. Every night while you are asleep, your BIOTRONIK device automatically collects and transmits data from the last 24 hours to the CardioMessenger. This is a handheld transmitter about the size of a smartphone that is placed next to your bed. The CardioMessenger sends data to a secure server, including: 

  • Device function status 
  • Battery status 
  • Status of pacing or defibrillation therapies delivered 
  • Current and historical heart rhythms including any detected abnormalities 
  • Overall changes in heart function 

Data is transmitted to the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring Service Center (HMSC) using mobile cellular technology. Your physicians can access and review the data 24/7 on a secure web portal and can additionally choose to receive urgent patient event alerts via text message or email. Your physician reviews your data and takes action when required. 

Elderly woman laying in bed hard moniroring devices on the nightstand

How To Setup & Use BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring?

Setting up BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is simple and, once set up by your healthcare team, the system is fully automatic. As a patient, you don’t need to take any action, other than making sure your CardioMessenger is charged, for successful daily transmissions to your care team. Don’t forget to take your CardioMessenger with you when you travel and place it next to your bed at night. 

Your healthcare team will review your data at intervals set by the clinic or the doctor’s office. Your physician will generally review reports only during normal working hours. If you have any questions about how your data is being monitored, please ask your physician or care provider. BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is not a replacement for emergency care. Please call your regional emergency service if you require urgent care. 

What About My Data?

To ensure the safety of your data, BIOTRONIK operates a data protection management system that ensures the fulfillment of all requirements of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the American Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  

BIOTRONIK processes the data on behalf of your physician. Your data is not shared with a third party. All your data is hosted at the Home Monitoring Service Center in Berlin, Germany. BIOTRONIK hosts a secure state-of-the-art infrastructure for Home Monitoring. Our ISO 27001 certified information management system is an essential security foundation for this infrastructure.

1 TRUST Study. Varma et al., Circulation (2010), 122: 325.; 2 IN-TIME Study. Hindricks et al., The Lancet (2014), 384: 583-590.; 3 TRUECOIN Study. Hindricks et al., European Heart Journal 2017, 1749–1755; 4 REFORM Study. Hindricks et al. European Heart Journal (2014), 98–105; 5 COMPAS Study. Mabo et al., European Heart Journal (2012), 33: 1105.