Quarterly Focus Issue: Heart Failure
Clinical Research
A Meta-Analysis of Remote Monitoring of Heart Failure Patients

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2009.08.017Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of remote patient monitoring (RPM) on the outcome of chronic heart failure (HF) patients.

Background

RPM via regularly scheduled structured telephone contact between patients and health care providers or electronic transfer of physiological data using remote access technology via remote external, wearable, or implantable electronic devices is a growing modality to manage patients with chronic HF.

Methods

After a review of the literature published between January 2000 and October 2008 on a multidisciplinary heart failure approach by either usual care (in-person visit) or RPM, 96 full-text articles were retrieved: 20 articles reporting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 12 reporting cohort studies qualified for a meta-analysis.

Results

Respectively, 6,258 patients and 2,354 patients were included in RCTs and cohort studies. Median follow-up duration was 6 months for RCTs and 12 months for cohort studies. Both RCTs and cohort studies showed that RPM was associated with a significantly lower number of deaths (RCTs: relative risk [RR]: 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.73 to 0.95, p = 0.006; cohort studies: RR: 0.53, 95% CI: 0.29 to 0.96, p < 0.001) and hospitalizations (RCTs: RR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87 to 0.99, p = 0.030; cohort studies: RR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.28 to 0.96, p < 0.001). The decrease in events was greater in cohort studies than in RCTs.

Conclusions

RPM confers a significant protective clinical effect in patients with chronic HF compared with usual care.

Key Words

device-based monitoring
heart failure
meta-analysis
remote monitoring
outcome

Abbreviations and Acronyms

CI
confidence interval
HF
heart failure
RCT
randomized controlled trial
RPM
remote patient monitoring
RR
relative risk

Cited by (0)

Dr. Klersy is a consultant to Boston Scientific and Medtronic. Dr. De Silvestri is a consultant to Boston Scientific. Dr. Gabutti is a consultant to Boston Scientific. Dr. Auricchio is a consultant to Philips, Medtronic, Biotronik GmbH, and Sorin and has received speaker fees from GE Healthcare, Philips, Medtronic, Biotronik GmbH, and Sorin.