A new study shows that patients who have implanted cardiac devices don’t object to mHealth tools or remote monitoring, they just happen to prefer in-person doctor visits.

The Journal Telemedicine and e-Health highlights the study’s findings.

Our aim was to evaluate the applicability of the CareLink (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN) remote monitoring system as a complementary option to the follow-up of patients with implanted devices, between in-office visits. Evaluated outcomes included both clinical (event detection and time to diagnosis) and nonclinical (patient’s satisfaction and economic costs) aspects.

The study was conducted with patients from a Portuguese central hospital sampled by convenience. Data were collected through two in-office visits and two remote evaluations, reproducing 1 year of clinical follow-up.

“In nonclinical terms,” the report summary reads, “we observed high or very high satisfaction (67% and 33%, respectively) with using remote monitoring technology, but still 8 patients (53%) stated they preferred in-office visits.”

It should be noted, however, that the introduction of remote monitoring technology has the ability to reduce total follow-up costs for patients by 25%.

“We conclude that the use of this system constitutes a viable complementary option to the follow-up of patients with implantable devices, between in-office visits,” the study concluded.

Although there remain some apprehensions about remote monitoring, patients are increasingly expressing their comfort with the tools and technologies available for their care. As a result, those behind the study are among the growing number of industry observers who believe that remote monitoring services and technologies have the ability to save lives and minimize hospitalized care.