Newswise — Patients with moderate heart failure now have a new option to help manage their chronic disease and reduce their chance of being readmitted to the hospital. Scott & White Memorial – Temple for the first time implanted a new miniaturized, wireless monitoring sensor to help manage heart failure (HF). Scott & White Memorial is one of six hospitals in Texas and the first hospital in the Baylor Scott & White Health system to offer the device. For more information watch this short video, click New Tech Helping Heart Failure Patients
“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to treat our patient’s disease process and improve outcomes for heart failure patients,” said Robert Scott III, MD, Director for Advanced Heart Failure at Scott & White Memorial. “This device will give us the ability to anticipate problems with our patients before they occur, decreasing their chance of being re-admitted to the hospital, and improving their quality of life.”
Memorial implemented the CardioMEMS HF System which is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring device proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions. The device is a sensor that is implanted in the pulmonary artery (PA) during a minimally invasive procedure. Once implanted, the device can measure and transmit PA pressure from the patient back to their healthcare team. Elevation in PA pressure appears even before changes in weight and blood pressure in the patient, which are traditionally used as indirect measures of worsening heart failure. The new system allows patients to transmit daily sensor readings from their homes to their health care providers allowing for personalized and proactive management to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization and onset of debilitating symptoms.
“Heart failure can rob patients’ quality of life and frequently results in repeated hospitalizations,” said John Erwin III, MD, cardiologist at Scott & White Memorial. “We think that we can provide significantly improved quality of life by partnering with the patient in acting preventatively as opposed to responding when an adverse event occurs.”
Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 5.1 million Americans have heart failure, with 670,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Patients with heart failure are frequently hospitalized, have a reduced quality of life and face a higher risk of death.
For more information about this new device or for other options, visit the advanced heart failure clinic at http://www.sw.org/heart-vascular-institute/advanced-heart-failure
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