Remote monitoring for heart failure: Assessing the risks of readmission and mortality

Remote monitoring (RM) can help patients with heart failure (HF) remain free of hospitalization. Our objective was to implement a patient-centered RM program that ensured timely clinical response, which would be associated with reduced mortality. This was a retrospective, observational, propensity-matched study. A large regional health system between 9/1/2016–1/31/2018. Patients admitted with acute HF exacerbation were matched on key variables. Up to two comparison patients were selected for each RM user. We used an algorithmic approach to assess daily physiologic data, assess symptoms, provide patient education, encourage patient self-management, and triage medical problems. We assessed all-cause mortality using Kaplan-Meier and log rank analysis. We used Cox proportional hazards to compare risk of death. Our cohort of 680 RM users and 1198 comparisons were similar across baseline characteristics except age (74.7 years versus 76.6 years, p