A Florida hospital has developed a system for wireless real-time monitoring and reprogramming of cardiac devices, including pacemakers and defibrillators, using an iPad. A doctor can suggest changes to a cardiac device's settings, then relay the information for a nurse in the hospital to execute using a touchscreen laptop.
The apparent pitch: Save time and money by enabling specialty trained physicians to remotely program implanted cardiac devices. The system might lead to fewer facility visits by the medical device maker's tech team and aims to save time for the patient and on-site medical staff, too, since the remote programming supposedly takes just minutes.
E. Martin Kloosterman, MD, Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory and Chief of the Cardiology Department at Boca Raton Regional Hospital developed the technology.
Using the system, a physician can use an iPad to remotely access the information display of a cardiac device programmer. A nurse can then follow the physician instructions for adjusting the cardiac device's settings using a touchscreen laptop called a remote-K-viewer. Previously, a representative of the cardiac device programmer company had to operate the machine, while the new system requires very little experience to successfully operate.
“The project came to mind several years ago,” stated Dr Kloosterman in a press release. “First, the evolution of the electronic medical records disseminated computer terminals with internet connections in the medical work space allowing clinicians ready access to patient information. Then recently, the iPad emerged providing the ability to be online in seconds anytime, anywhere, allowing remote access to computer information. The combination of these two new innovations led me to the creation of the new technology: the remote-K-viewer. I designed and constructed a dedicated cart that hosts the programmer connected to a touch screen laptop with a wireless internet connection and a printer. The remote-K-viewer cart is mobile and designed to be used by nurses or non-specialized physicians with minimal training.”
Kloosterman said that the system has been successfully used to review data internationally, as well as during an airplane flight.
“The remote-K-viewer concept is a new software/hardware communication system and the first step into an inevitable direction, real time remote device management," stated Kloosterman. We are excited [about] the possibilities that this application has to offer in regards to the development of a new generation of programmers and service models in the near future."
Read the press release below.
PRESS RELEASE -- Boca Raton Regional Hospital is the site for the development and study of a new software system that can revolutionize the way physicians communicate and reprogram cardiac devices remotely. The technology and study was conceived and developed by E. Martin Kloosterman, MD, Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory and Chief of the Cardiology Department at Boca Raton Regional Hospital and the study abstract was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. Dr. Kloosterman presented the study at the Venice 2011 Arrhythmias international workshop to over 1,700 physicians in Italy on October 9, 2011.
“This new development provides clinicians the ability to manage cardiac devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, remotely in real-time. The model, which was tested in the Hospital’s emergency and operating rooms, allows the specialized physicians to have direct access to the information in the patient’s device for adjustment and reprograming in a moment’s notice no matter where they are and at any given time,” said Dr. Kloosterman.
Currently, cardiac device systems require the presence of the manufacturing company’s representative and the use of a programmer (dedicated computer that communicates with the cardiac device to obtain data and perform testing and programming changes). Once at the patient’s bedside the representative gathers the data and then communicates the findings to the cardiologist and/or electrophysiologist to determine any program changes. A device check can take hours and not having clear, firsthand information by the physician leads to unnecessary lag times.
“The project came to mind several years ago,” said Dr. Kloosterman. “First, the evolution of the electronic medical records disseminated computer terminals with internet connections in the medical work space allowing clinicians ready access to patient information. Then recently, the IPad emerged providing the ability to be online in seconds anytime, anywhere, allowing remote access to computer information. The combination of these two new innovations led me to the creation of the new technology: the remote-K-viewer. I designed and constructed a dedicated cart that hosts the programmer connected to a touch screen laptop with a wireless internet connection and a printer. The remote-K-viewer cart is mobile and designed to be used by nurses or non-specialized physicians with minimal training.”
On the other end, this new application allows the specialized physician to remotely access to a direct visualization of the programmer screen seeing the patient’s pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) information from an iPad on the road or on a computer at the office or at home. A nurse at the bedside follows the remote physician instructions to operate the programmer via telephone communication and the laptop attached to the programmer. The entire process can be done in only a few minutes.
As part of his recent publication on this topic, Kloosterman reported the testing of his system during an airplane flight from San Francisco to Orlando. The system has also worked well with communication from out of the state and abroad namely South America and Europe. “The remote-K-viewer concept is a new software/hardware communication system and the first step into an inevitable direction, real time remote device management. We are excited with the possibilities that this application has to offer in regards to the development of a new generation of programmers and service models in the near future. If we can control a robot in Mars we can certainly control remotely a cardiac device in Boca Raton,” said Kloosterman.
About Boca Raton Regional Hospital - Medicine. Redefined.
Born out of community need in 1967, Boca Raton Regional Hospital is an advanced tertiary medical center (www.brrh.com) with 400 beds and more than 800 primary and specialty physicians on staff. The Hospital is a recognized leader in oncology, cardiovascular disease and surgery, minimally invasive surgery, orthopedics, women’s health and emergency medicine, all of which offer state-of-the-art diagnostic and imaging capabilities. The Hospital is a Joint Commission Designated Primary Stroke Center.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital is the recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence by HealthGrades, a leading independent healthcare ratings organization. This marks the seventh year in a row that the Hospital has received this national recognition. Other 2011 HealthGrades rankings include: #1 in Florida for overall cardiac services and cardiac surgery, #1 in Florida for treatment of stroke, #2 in Florida for gastrointestinal services, and #3 in Florida for gastrointestinal medical treatment. This is the second consecutive year that the Institution is ranked number one in the state of Florida for cardiac surgery. The Hospital is also the recipient the 2010/2011 HealthGrades Women’s Health Excellence Award and the 2010 HealthGrades Emergency Medicine Excellence Award.
