Over 120,000 Canadians are living with pacemakers and implantable cardiac device (ICD) implants. The management of CIED patients involves visits to specialized clinics. For many patients, these visits require lengthy travel to reach a CIED healthcare facility. Patients also experience a gap in understanding how their devices are functioning in-between visits resulting in anxiety and a decrease in quality of life.
VIRTUES CIED alleviates a patient’s concerns about long-distance travel to receive CIED care and removes a barrier to the acceptance of remote monitoring. Specialized CIED care can be provided at home in the patient’s community.
Initiated through an understanding of a patient’s journey, patient partners were enthusiastic participants in the co-design of VIRTUES CIED. Patients from across the country shared their expertise to ensure that the health information and application design meets the needs of patients and caregivers.
All ICD devices and pacemakers need to be followed on a regular basis by physicians and technicians. The VIRTUES CIED platform augments and supports the communication of vital updates regarding device functionality to reduce the risk of malfunction and provide up-to-date communication of recalls.
Through VIRTUES CIED, clinicians can treat patients efficiently and identify issues that require urgent assessment.
“We hope that VIRTUES provides increased efficiency in clinics, the required data for triaging and interpreting these transmissions appropriately, and seamless and near real-time updates for the patient.”
Dr. Ratika Parkash
Network Investigator, CANet, and Electrophysiologist, Halifax’s QEII Health Sciences Centre