Boston Scientific announced on 13 July 2009 CE mark for its Latitude Patient Management system. The Latitude system remotely monitors patients with implantable cardiac devices, gathering information on both the device and a patient’s heart health status. The system can also detect clinical events between scheduled physician visits and send relevant data directly to a patient’s physician.
“The wireless Latitude system will enable me to more closely monitor my patients while helping manage hospital workflow,” said Konstantin M Heinroth, Department of Medicine, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany. “I hope to provide my patients added convenience and the peace of mind that comes from knowing both their device and heart health status can be monitored.”
Boston Scientific has enrolled more than 130,000 patients on the Latitude system since its introduction in the US in 2006.
The Latitude system provides physicians actionable information that enables them to see changes in their patients’ cardiac health sooner than regularly scheduled follow-up visits. Latitude is the only remote cardiac device monitoring system to offer a wireless weight scale and blood pressure monitor, both of which are recommended by the European Society of Cardiology for the management of Class I heart failure patients.
The international version of the Latitude system is compatible with the company’s wireless Teligen implantable cardioverter defibrillator and Cognis cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), the world’s smallest and thinnest high-energy devices.
The first enrolments of European patients onto the Latitude system were performed by JH Ruiter, Medisch Centrum Alkmaar, Alkmaar, The Netherlands, and Peter Mortensen, chief physician, SkejbyUniversityHospital, Aarhus, Denmark.
