A recent European study found that the Abbott CardioMEMS HF System resulted in a 44% reduction in heart failure hospitalizations.
Abbott
(NYSE: ABT)
also reported today that the study found an improvement in patient-reported quality-of-life scores as early as three months with the implantable remote monitoring sensor.
Heart failure is a global health challenge affecting more than 64 million people worldwide and posing significant demands on healthcare systems due to frequent hospital readmissions. Remote monitoring technologies such as the Abbott CardioMEMS sensor could enable better management of this chronic condition.
“Heart failure is a global health problem with a devastating impact on patient lives and high rate of morbidity and mortality,” Dr. Philip Adamson, chief medical officer of Abbott’s heart failure business, said in a news release. “These results demonstrate once again that a proactive, remote-centered approach using pressure monitoring with CardioMEMS leads to better health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction across multiple health indicators than medication alone.”
Abbott says the CardioMEMS sensor’s design enables it to help people and their physicians proactively manage heart failure and potentially prevent events that could lead to hospitalization. Implanted into the pulmonary artery via a minimally invasive procedure, the paperclip-sized sensor wirelessly transmits data about heart rates and pressures to the patient’s physicians. This continuous data stream aids in adjusting treatment plans and keeping hospital admissions at bay.
More about the Abbott CardioMEMS study
According to Abbott, MONITOR-HF is the third randomized, controlled clinical trial globally to show a significant health benefit and quality-of-life improvement for heart failure patients using the CardioMEMS HF System. The MONITOR-HF results were announced recently at a late-breaking presentation at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual meeting of the Heart Failure Association in Prague. The results were simultaneously published in The Lancet. The Dutch Ministry of Health funded the trial, with Abbott paying clinical research organization costs.
“The Dutch health care system is known for its structured approach to heart failure management at outpatient clinics with general access to guideline-directed medical therapies,” said Dr J.J. (Jasper) Brugts, principal investigator for the MONITOR-HF trial and associate professor at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands. “This approach raises the bar, making the MONITOR-HF results even more meaningful given that patients who were already receiving a high standard of care reported significant improvements in their quality of life while using the CardioMEMS monitoring system.”
The MONITOR-HF news comes about two months after Abbott presented a meta-analysis of three randomized, controlled trials at the Technology and Heart Failure Therapeutics (THT) Conference in Boston. The analysis found that hemodynamic pressure sensing with Abbott’s CardioMEMS HF system can significantly reduce the risk of death from heart failure.
The FDA initially approved the system in 2014; it received an expanded indication in early 2022.