Bluetooth enabled pacemaker device can be a boon to patients coming from far off places
Pune (Times of Power and Voice) :-Team of Doctors at Sahyadri Hospital Deccan recently implanted a Bluetooth enabled pacemaker on a 45 year old patient. This will enable real time report of functioning of heart which would otherwise have required the patient to come to the hospital.
Dr. Abhijit Palshikar , Senior Cardiologist, Sahyadri Hospitals said that the 45 year old female patient had presented to us with weak heart pumping ( 25%) . She could hardly walk for a short distance. Weakened heart muscles was the reason for weakened pumping. There was no noticeable cause ( idiopathic) for weakened heart muscles. Implanting a pacemaker is normally an option before heart transplant . A half dollar shaped pacemaker is implanted just below the collarbone. Three wires or lead as they are called in medical terms are connected to the device monitor to check the heart rate and to emit small electric pulses if there is any irregularity. In simple terms the effort is to make the heart chambers work in unison through Cardiac re synchronization therapy.
He added that the Bluetooth allows connectivity and a AI based personalized app on the patient’s phone makes things quite simpler. The app monitors heart rate and the connected device can alert doctors about any changes in heart rhythm and function and allows the doctors to monitor patient’s heart remotely.
Earlier without Bluetooth connectivity, analyzer was required to be connected to the pacemaker with every visit which would then be shown to the doctor. But with real time connectivity, the patients need not come every time. Although in this case the patient was from Pune , the connectivity would be a boon for people from far off places. The patient now has an improved pumping by almost 10-15% and has resulted in significant improvement in quality of life. She can almost lead a normal life now.
Dr. Palshikar added that cost still remains a concern with such devices, but as with all technologies , hopefully it will reduce over time .
Abrarali Dalal , CEO , Sahyadri Hospitals said that technology has brought a paradigm shift in healthcare by increasing the overall efficiency and changing the way how we collect, integrate , analyse and store data. Especially in hospital chain like ours, many patients come not only from all over Maharashtra , but many other states . The real time monitoring will make things much simpler for patients as well as doctors.
