The Institut Cœur Poumon de Lille uses implants that send heart rate data via a smartphone to doctors, who can diagnose remotely.
Medicine is updating communication technologies. At the Lille CHRU, doctors from the Heart Lung Institute now use a tool that allows them to monitor the heart activity of their patients, without them needing to go to the hospital. It facilitates and refines their diagnosis, and thus increases the chances of survival.
It is a small implant that is placed under the skin, at the level of the thorax. Connected by Bluetooth to a smartphone, that of the patient or, failing that, a telephone provided by the hospital, it records the heart rate, like an electrocardiograph.
The smartphone application, in turn, transmits the data in encrypted form to secure servers, from where it can be viewed by the Institute’s cardiologists.
Towards miniaturization
For the moment, it is not an emergency device. The system is not intended to send an alert to the emergency services in the event of a cardiac incident. This is a diagnostic tool.
“Some patients have symptoms that are too rare to be observed exactly at the time of the consultation,” explains Dr Laurence Moreau-Guedon, cardiologist at the Lille CHRU. The device works intelligently: when an anomaly occurs, it starts recording and transmitting. If symptoms appear, the patient can also manually trigger the implant via the smartphone application. The device can thus help find the causes of syncope, or identify atrial fibrillation and transmit instantly to medical personnel.
This type of implant is not new. The real innovation is the smartphone application and the ease of use. Previously, patients could only transmit with bulky transmitters that limited their ability to move. “They called it their box! », Referring to an internet box, laughs Dr Moreau-Guedon.
France is late
The use of objects that patients already have, here their smartphone, is part of the evolution of telerhythmology, which has existed for fifteen years, recalls the cardiologist. Unfortunately, telemedicine is not covered by Health Insurance – with one exception, in ophthalmology.
France is lagging behind in this area, and only local initiatives, such as the one carried out at the Heart Lung Institute of the CHRU in Lille, allow it to be put in place. “It is the hospital that takes charge of the device”, underlines Dr. Moreau-Guedon.
For the moment, since April and the start of its use, around ten patients have been implanted. They will be able to wear the device for three years.
.
