Wearable and Implantable IT

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

The NetGuard wireless electrocardiograph system, manufactured by Datascope Corp. (Montvale, NJ), continuously monitors the electrical activity of a patient's heart, using a small wireless electrocardiograph monitor that communicates with a standard PC, and gives an alert and ECG display when a dangerous heart rhythm is detected. The NetGuard system consists of a reusable transmitter that is worn by the patient, a wireless infrastructure, and a server to manage and display data from the reusable transmitter, which continuously analyzes the patient's ECG and heart rate. In the event of a life-threatening cardiac event, the system alerts clinicians so the patient may receive lifesaving intervention rapidly.

In 2007, St. Jude Medical Inc. (St. Paul, MN) received FDA approval of its first radio-frequency (RF) wireless devices to treat patients with heart failure and with potentially lethal heart arrhythmias. The Promote RF cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) and Current RF implantable cardioverter-defibrillator feature RF telemetry for wandless communication with programmers used by physicians to interrogate and program devices. RF telemetry enables secure, remote communication between the implanted device and the programmers in a clinician's office or hospital. The Promote RF CRT-D also allows physicians to electronically reconfigure left ventricular leads to help optimize the pacing performance of the device without the need to physically reposition the lead.

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