“As a result of increasing patient volumes, our customers continue to emphasize the need to efficiently capture device data and seamlessly transfer it to their electronic health record systems,” said Darrell Johnson, vice president of patient management for the Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management business at Medtronic. “By utilizing the Medtronic CareLink Network and Paceart, clinics can electronically transfer both remote and in-clinic patient data to any industry EHR system. And because our customers use a wide variety of electronic health records, we have forged relationships with multiple vendors. Today we connect to the 12 EHR systems that lead the pack with our customers, and we continue to build on that as customers request connectivity solutions for their clinics.”

Medtronic CareLink Network: A History of Innovation

In the five years since Medtronic pioneered remote patient monitoring with the introduction of the Medtronic CareLink Network, remote monitoring has become a standard of care for those with implanted cardiac devices. Further, Medtronic was integral in obtaining a national payment policy decision by the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2006 for implantable cardiac device evaluations using remote monitoring technology. This policy decision coincided with recommendations by the Heart Rhythm Society on how the medical device industry and government oversee implanted cardiac devices, which specifically encouraged better adoption of remote monitoring systems by physicians.

The Medtronic CareLink Network helps physicians and patients better manage chronic cardiovascular disease treated by implantable device therapy. It enables patients to transmit data from their implantable device, as instructed by their physician, using a portable monitor that is connected to a standard telephone line. Within minutes, the patient’s physician and nurses can view the data on a secure Internet Web site.
The information, which is comparable to that provided during an in-clinic device follow-up visit, provides the physician with a view of how the device and patient’s heart are operating.
The system provides an efficient, safe and convenient way for specialty physicians to remotely monitor the condition of their patients and, if needed, make adjustments to medication or prescribe additional therapy.
It also saves patients time by potentially eliminating some in-office visits.
And for heart failure patients with a Medtronic Concerto® cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) or Virtuoso® ICD, a Medtronic CareAlert™ Notification can be sent via the Network to physicians wirelessly and automatically, providing the potential for treatment decisions before the condition worsens.
The information in the Medtronic CareLink Network can be forwarded automatically to Paceart for inclusion in the patient’s Paceart record; from Paceart, via HL7 industry standard protocols, the data can move seamlessly to a clinic’s electronic health record.

Clinics in 16 countries use the Medtronic CareLink Network to follow their patients remotely, allowing physicians to perform a complete analysis of all the device- and patient-specific cardiac data stored within Medtronic implantable cardiac devices.

The Medtronic CareLink Network now serves the remote monitoring needs of more than 225,000 cardiac device patients throughout Western Europe and Canada, as well as in the U.S. Further, several pacemaker models have been added for remote device data transmission via the Medtronic CareLink Network:
Adapta® portfolio, including the Adapta®, Versa® and Sensia® pacemakers;
EnRhythm® pacemakers;
EnPulse® pacemakers; and
Kappa® 600, 700, 800, 900 pacemakers

In fact, virtually all models of Medtronic ICDs, CRT-Ds and pacemakers are compatible with the Medtronic CareLink Network.

Paceart: First to Move Device Data to EHR

For more than 20 years, the Paceart system has led in the development of information solutions for device clinic management, including activities such as automating patient scheduling, correspondence and reporting. Paceart supports a common workflow by organizing and archiving data for cardiac devices from all major manufacturers, serving as the central hub for patients’ device data.

In 2004, Paceart was the first to move device data to the electronic health record with its connection to EPIC; today, Paceart acts as the gateway for managing clinics’ device data, receiving registration and scheduling data from, and sending patient and device data to more than 10 of the leading electronic health record and practice management systems. Presently, device clinics work with dozens of EHR products. Paceart can interface with any HL7-compatible system and is actively sharing data with such industry leaders as athenahealth, EPIC, GEMMS, and NextGen Healthcare, among others. Today, more than 1,100 clinics are using the Paceart System to streamline clinicians’ daily activities and better serve 1.5 million patients. And Medtronic’s industry-leading EHR connectivity achievements are significant as the United States Department of Health and Human Services continues to push for EHR adoption across the nation’s healthcare system.

In addition to its ability to receive data from the Medtronic CareLink Network, in 2007 Paceart introduced SessionSync™ transfer technology, which enables Medtronic 2090 Programmers to send data directly to a patient’s Paceart record via the clinic’s wired or wireless network. SessionSync saves clinics up to 2.5 minutes per device check as compared to manual data entry.1

“Today physicians receive an ever-increasing volume of patient and device information in a variety of formats,” said Charles Love, M.D., director of Cardiac Rhythm Services at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. “Integrating device data with electronic health records provides a comprehensive view of the patient and helps me collaborate more effectively with other physicians. Via Paceart, Medtronic has made it possible for the information from programmers, remote monitors, and clinic management systems to flow directly into the EHR. By integrating these systems, Medtronic has provided the glue that binds the information together and allows health care providers to deliver better patient care more efficiently.”

1 Ching B, Brewer L., et al. The impact of electronic capture of implantable cardiac device data from programmer on clinic efficiency. Presented at CardioRhythm 2007, February 4, 2007. Medtronic, Inc. Data on file January 30, 2007.

About Medtronic

Medtronic, Inc., (www.medtronic.com) headquartered in Minneapolis, is the world’s leading medical technology company, alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for people with chronic disease.