Cost-utility Analysis of the Follow-up of Exclusive Telemedicine Pacemakers, Compared to Conventional Pacemakers

Professional practice guidelines recommend that pacemakers be followed with at least one to two in-office follow-ups per year, which is both a public health issue (the average time to get a consultation with a cardiologist being 42 days) but also an economic issue considering the number of patients implanted (Brignole EHJ 2013). Remote monitoring of pacemakers could allow an optimization of the long-term follow-up of pacemaker recipients in hospitals.

Compared to CRT and ICD, few studies have highlighted the economic advantage of remote monitoring with PM.

COMPAS study (Eur Heart J. 2012) demonstrated that remote monitoring is a safe alternative to conventional care over a 2 year-follow-up. This study also demonstrated that long-term remote monitoring of pacemakers decreased the number of ambulatory visits and enabled the early detection of important clinical and device-related adverse events.

As the study shows data up to 18 months, this is not sufficient to define the benefit of telecardiology in this population of patients.

SETAM study (Pacing Clin Electrophysiol 2017) demonstrated the benefit of remote monitoring showing an earlier diagnosis and management of atrial arrhythmias and a subsequently reduction of atrial fibrillation (AF) burden. The incidence and prevalence of AF is expected to increase with time, resulting in significant societal and economic impact.