Abbott launches first smartphone compatible insertable cardiac monitor to detect arrhythmias in India

New Delhi: Abbott recently launched the latest in Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) across India, providing patients access to the world's first and only smartphone compatible ICM. The technology is designed to help physicians remotely identify cardiac arrhythmias.

Abbott's latest ICM is the world's first smartphone compatible ICM to help physicians identify even the most difficult to detect cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF), in order to help guide appropriate therapy.

It is designed to continuously monitor a patient's heart rhythm and proactively transmit information via Bluetooth® wireless technology to Abbott's dedicated mobile app for this, allowing physicians to follow their patients remotely and accurately diagnose arrhythmias that may require further treatment. The device has already received the CE Mark and USFDA approvals and is available in the EU, USA, as well as Australia.

Speaking on the importance of the device, Dr. Balbir Singh, Chairman of Medanta Hospital said, "The insertable cardiac monitor is extremely useful, because as the smallest cardiac care device which can diagnose some unknown, yet dangerous heart rhythm problems, it provides early diagnosis and timely treatment to events which could be catastrophic."

An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm that develops when disease or injury disrupts the heart's electrical signals, causing the heart to beat erratically. As the heart begins to beat too fast or too slow, changes in blood flow can expose patients to symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath or even sudden death.

Mr. Ajay Singh Chauhan, General Manager, India & Subcontinent, Abbott-St. Jude Medical says,"This new ICM is taking cardiac monitoring to a whole new level. The device provides patients a new way to monitor for abnormal heart rhythms while staying connected to their physician remotely and engaged in their health care. For physicians, the device allows for effective management of patients while enhancing patient compliance through smartphone connectivity. If left undetected, arrhythmias can lead to additional – and often serious – complications for patients."

At times, it is not easy to determine infrequent arrhythmias. Dr. Aparna Jaswal, Associate Director at Fortis-Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi says, "The ICM can help us diagnose patients having infrequent, but potentially fatal episodes of cardiac arrhythmias and choose the appropriate treatment modalities for such patients."

Once implanted—just under the skin in the chest during a quick, minimally-invasive outpatient procedure—the Abbott ICM continuously monitors heart rhythms to detect a range of cardiac arrhythmias, including irregular heartbeats, or atrial fibrillation and is the slimmest ICM available today. It is the size of two paper clips, stacked on top of each other. The device also allows patients to avoid a separate or cumbersome recording device, which is often the requirement.

While the ICM continuously monitors for abnormal heart rhythms and transmits data to a patient's physician, the app also allows patients to track symptoms proactively, sync their data with their clinic at any time, and view their transmission history without having to contact their clinic to confirm successful data transfers.

Patients can also record their symptoms such as fainting spells or heart palpitations in the app on their smartphones, to complement the information being monitored by the device. ICM helps enhance patient compliance, without additional clinic burden. Thus it can effectively manage patients from a simple insertion procedure to streamlined remote follow-up.

Traditional remote monitoring between RF devices and bedside transmitters is associated with poor patient compliance requiring clinic resources to ensure regular connection and transmissions. Traditionally, home-based transmitters have not been intuitive. Often, these transmitters are bulky and patients find traveling with them to be difficult and inconvenient.

Reiterating this, Dr. Vanita Arora, Director and Head, Max Hospital, Saket, New Delhi says, "Having a smartphone-enabled patient activator increases compliance and leads to a better correlation between symptoms and cardiac rhythm."