Telecardiology

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The development of IT tools and interlevel relationships in the management of the most prevalent processes has led to a semi-presential assessment approach. In cardiology, this form of assessment is possible through a close collaboration with primary care. The aim of this study is to analyze the results of our e-consultation program and to establish the effectiveness of this new form of assistance. METHODS: Single-center study that included e-consultations referred from 15 September 2021 to 30 September 2022...

Technological innovation provides easily accessible tools capable of simplifying healthcare processes. Notably, digital technology application in the cardiology field can improve prognosis, reduce costs, and lead to an overall improvement in healthcare. The digitization of health data, with the use of electronic health records and of electronic health files in Italy, represents one of the fields of application of digital technologies in medicine. The 2023 States General of the Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists (ANMCO) provided an opportunity to focus attention on the potential benefits and critical issues associated with the implementation of the aforementioned digital tools, artificial intelligence, and telecardiology...

BACKGROUND: In the coming years, telemedicine will play a key role in health care. Especially in rural areas with weak infrastructure, telemedicine could be crucial to providing adequate and personalized medical care. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the acceptance and preferences of telemedicine among cardiologists, internists, and general practitioners. In addition, we aimed to identify knowledge, explore factors that influence the decision to adopt or reject this technology, and create starting points for demand-oriented further research...

PURPOSE: Prehospital telecardiology facilitates early ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) detection, yet its widespread implementation remains challenging. Extracting digital STEMI biomarkers from printed electrocardiograms (ECGs) using phone cameras could offer an affordable and scalable solution. This study assessed the feasibility of this approach with real-world prehospital ECGs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients suspected of having STEMI by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) were identified from a policy research dataset...

BACKGROUND: Today, using the medical technology of telecardiology, as part of advanced medical services, plays an essential role in providing care to cardiac patients in life-threatening conditions who need emergency care. However, pre-hospital emergency care personnel are faced with certain challenges in using telecardiology, with adverse effects on their performance. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the challenges to using telecardiology as viewed by pre-hospital emergency care personnel in Southern Iran...

INTRODUCTION: Telecardiology has emerged as a vital field within telemedicine, fostering collaboration between hospital and community medicine. This pilot study introduces an innovative pediatric telecardiology system, comprising a telecardiology system seamlessly integrated with a hospital telemedicine platform. A smooth flow of ECG execution, transmission, and reporting between Primary Care Pediatrician clinics and the hospital was tested as the primary objective. User experience surveys were also considered...

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global impact on public health services. Using new strategies through telehealth for the management of patients with congenital heart disease was the challenge. OBJECTIVE: To describe the experience in telecardiology, and the strategies implemented during the pandemic. METHOD: Retrospective, qualitative study that includes the period from April 2020 to April 2021. Inquiries were received through the service's official e-mail or telephone...

To date, mortality rates associated with heart diseases are dangerously increasing, making them the leading cause of death globally. From this point of view, digital technologies can provide health systems with the necessary support to increase prevention and monitoring, and improve care delivery. The present study proposes a review of the literature to understand the state of the art and the outcomes of international experiences. A reference framework is defined to develop reflections to optimize the use of resources and technologies, favoring the development of new organizational models and intervention strategies...

The high health care costs and poor quality associated with heart failure have led to the development of remote patient monitoring (RPM or RM) systems and cost-effective disease management strategies. RM of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) is the application of communication technology to patients carrying a pacemaker (PM), an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) or an implantable loop recorder (ILR). The aim of this study is to define and analyze the benefits of modern telecardiology to provide patients with remote clinical assistance especially for patients with implantable devices for early detection of the development of heart failure as well as the limitations inherent therein...

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Infants with staged surgical palliation for congenital heart disease are at high-risk for interstage morbidity and mortality. Interstage telecardiology visits (TCV) have been effective in identifying clinical concerns and preventing unnecessary emergency department visits in this high-risk population. We aimed to assess the feasibility of implementing auscultation with digital stethoscopes (DSs) during TCV and the potential impact on interstage care in our Infant Single Ventricle Monitoring & Management Program...


In telecardiology, the bio-signal acquisition processing and communication for clinical purposes occupies larger storage and significant bandwidth over a communication channel. Electrocardiograph (ECG) compression with effective reproductivity is highly desired. In the present work, a compression technique for ECG signals with less distortion by using a non-decimated stationary wavelet with a run-length encoding scheme has been proposed.
Method:
In the present work non-decimated stationary wavelet transform (NSWT) method has been developed to compress the ECG signals...

Remote monitoring (RM) is the newest function of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). In our observational retrospective analysis, we aimed to assess whether telecardiology could be a safe alternative to routine outpatient examinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The in- and outpatient visits, the number of acute cardiac decompensation episodes, the RM data from CIEDs, and general condition were examined via questionnaires (KCCQ, EQ-5D-5L). Regarding the enrolled 85 patients, the number of personal patient appearances was significantly lower in the year following the pandemic outbreak compared to the previous year (1...

In 2015, the Italian Society of Cardiology and its Working Group on Telemedicine and Informatics issued a position paper on Telecardiology, resuming the most eminent evidence supporting the use of information and communication technology in principal areas of cardiovascular care, ranked by level of evidence. More than 5 years later and after the global shock inflicted by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, an update on the topic is warranted. Recent evidence and studies on principal areas of cardiovascular disease will be therefore reported and discussed, with particular focus on telemedicine for cardiovascular care in the COVID-19 context...

Objective . Automatic detection of Electrocardiograms (ECG) quality is fundamental to minimize costs and risks related to delayed diagnosis due to low ECG quality. Most algorithms to assess ECG quality include non-intuitive parameters. Also, they were developed using data non-representative of a real-world scenario, in terms of pathological ECGs and overrepresentation of low-quality ECG. Therefore, we introduce an algorithm to assess 12-lead ECG quality, Noise Automatic Classification Algorithm (NACA) developed in Telehealth Network of Minas Gerais (TNMG)...

BACKGROUND: The length of waiting lists in Italy for outpatient cardiology investigations provided by the National Health System is a serious dysfunction. The shortage of physicians in hospitals makes it difficult to solve this problem by drawing on internal resources. The waiting list at Valduce Hospital in Como for outpatient echocardiographic examinations was 12 months at the beginning of 2018. Therefore, we experimented a new way to deal with this inefficiency. METHODS: Starting in February 2018, we have undertaken in Valduce Hospital a partnership between the Department of Cardiology and an external startup (Ecocardioservice LLC) which guarantees for outpatients on-site performance by sonographers of echocardiographic examinations that are subsequently reported remotely via telemedicine by experienced cardiologists...

BACKGROUND: Pre-partecipation ECG screening of large populations has a significant socioeconomic impact. Technological progress now allows for high-tech-low-cost ECG screening using validated smartphone-based devices capable of guiding to the correct performance of a 12‑lead ECG by layman with no medical background. METHODS: We enrolled 728 (364, 52% males) individuals, aged 12-13 years who underwent ECG screening with a smartphone 12‑lead ECG during school hours by layman volunteers...

BACKGROUND: Remote cardiac rehabilitation (RCR) after myocardial infarction is an innovative Israeli national program in the field of telecardiology. RCR is included in the Israeli health coverage for all citizens. It is generally accepted that telemedicine programs better apply to younger patients because it is thought that they are more technologically literate than are older patients. It has also previously been thought that older patients have difficulty using technology-based programs and attaining program goals...

AIM: To provide a detailed description of the workflow at our telecardiology centre and to analyse the workload of real-world remote monitoring with the aim to assess the feasibility to outsource this service. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the telecardiology service provided at the University Hospitals of Leuven by extracting patient demographic data, general time usage and detailed information about the type of remote contacts. 10,869 contacts in 948 patients have been included...

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 spurred rapid adoption and expansion of telemedicine. We investigated the factors driving visit modality (telemedicine vs. in-person) for outpatient visits at a large cardiovascular center. METHODS: We used electronic health record data from March 2020 to February 2021 from four cardiology subspecialties (general cardiology, electrophysiology, heart failure, and interventional cardiology) at a large academic health system in Northern California...