Economic Evaluation in Cardiology: Remote Monitoring of Pacemakers

Cardiovascular Diseases are a major cause of global morbidity and mortality, being responsible according to the World Health Organization of the 30% of overall mortality.

Since 2001 that the first pacemaker of remote monitoring was implanted in Europe, more than 300,000 pacemaker have been implanted around the world. Despite this sharp expansion, the scientific evidence on economic evaluations of pacemaker with remote monitoring is very limited, and in our knowledge, studies including informal costs have not been conducted.

In the field of cardiology, telemedicine allows consultations with patients through monitoring systems and remote communication analyzing the ongoing heart rates of people with pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, cardiac resynchronization therapy and subcutaneous Holter. The use of remote monitoring may save time and efforts to both healthcare professionals and patients, including their informal caregivers, reducing the number of follow up visits to the hospital and reducing the associated costs with patient follow-up, which will help to improve sustainability of healthcare services.

During the 12 months of study, the patients with implant of pacemakers of both groups will be assessed of the same parameters, in 4 different moments (pre-implant and months 1, 6, 12 and 5 years post-implantation).

The study will estimate: 1) The Clinical features of the patients. 2) The effectiveness through of administration of health-related quality of life, functional capacity questionnaires and 3) Finally, the hospital and informal costs of patients with pacemakers will be estimated by the researches.

Inclusion criteria

• Be 18 years of age
• Have a pacemaker implanted
• Understand and be able to properly perform self-monitoring at home

Exclusion criteria

• Be participating in another study
• Refuse to participate in the study
• Have implanted a different cardiac device to the pacemaker