Kentarou Yoshida

Current Status of a Pacemaker Monitoring System Introduced at Our Facility

The Cardiovascular Center was opened in 2008 in our hospital (about 200 beds, Tokyo). At present, we are managing 176 pacemaker patients ranging in age from 30 s to 100 s (mean age, 73.9). Most patients live within a zone no more than 20 minutes by car from our hospital. The pacemaker monitoring system was introduced in 2010. Each patient for whom this system is applicable has been informed about the system. During the first visit to our outpatient clinic, 2 patients in their 90 s did not consent to the system, while 2 of 4 in their 80 s did consent. However, data transmission was not possible in one of these 2 patients. Since then, the system has been applied only to patients who are apparently appropriate candidates. At present, we are monitoring 15 patients equipped with a pacemaker. Immediately after the monitoring system was introduced, intervention was required for 2 cases because device installment at a site did not reach by electrical waves or the power was turned off at night by the patient. One patient quit monitoring after eczema developed. These experiences illustrate the difficulties of introducing this type of monitoring system to an urban hospital like ours, caring for many elderly patients.