NEWS
RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bobbie Boyd, Director of Public Relations
& Community Outreach
Advanced Cardiac Specialists
Cell Phone: (602) 570-7069 E-mail:
bobbie.boyd@acs-im.com
NEWLY FDA APPROVED HOME MONITORING PACEMAKER
TECHNOLOGY NOW AVAILABLE FOR ARIZONANS
New Technology Provides
Physician Supervised Monitoring of Heartbeat
For Patient Piece of Mind
Phoenix (May 2, 2002) -
April 3, 2002 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Biotronik’s Home
Monitoring Pacemaker, as an improvement on existing pacemakers, the small
implantable devices that provide electrical stimulus to the heart in order to
supply an adequate number of heart beats when the body’s natural signals fail. The new technology is now available to
Arizonans with the first procedure anticipated within the week. Prior to the release of this device, the
physician was severely limited in his ability to monitor how effectively a
patient’s pacemaker was working; or, if it was properly regulating the
patient’s heart beat. Regular pacemaker
check up visits were used. Otherwise,
if the patient’s symptoms were severe enough, he might be prompted to schedule
an office visit or go to the emergency room.
This new technology allows the patient’s heart beat to be monitored, as
needed, which provides the physician with vital information, particularly on
patients at risk of heart failure.
The patient is provided
with peace of mind that there is communication with his physician regardless of
whether the patient is experiencing symptoms, is sleeping, or is
traveling. The pacemaker has a built in
phone. It calls your doctor and tells
him what the pacemaker is doing and why it might be failing or will fail
shortly. Specifically, there are
several ways information may be forwarded to the physician. 1) If the patient becomes concerned about
how he is feeling and how his heart is functioning, he may press a magnet to
the pacemaker area and trigger the heart beat readings to be forwarded to his
physician. 2) Should a problem occur
with the patient’s heart beat, even if the patient is not experiencing
symptoms, the pacemaker, itself, will trigger readings to be sent. 3) When the patient is going to bed, he may
place a transmitting device on the bedside table to forward readings throughout
the night. And/or, 4) a devise may be
carried on the patient’s belt throughout the day.
This new pacemaker has an
additional chip that monitors the heartbeat.
This information is communicated to a service center in Germany through
a special Federal Communication Commission (FCC) band cellular line. In this way, the call will go through, even
if regular lines are tied up. The
information is then faxed directly to the physician’s office. The whole process should take less than
three minutes.
The manufacturer of this new pacemaker, Biotronik, is a world leader in the cardiovascular device industry and is committed to the research and development of new biomedical products. Robert M. Siegel, M.D., Medical Director of Advanced Cardiac Specialists, along with his team of physicians, have brought the procedure to Arizona.