Mater first in Australia to offer remote paediatric monitoring system

In October the Queensland Paediatric Cardiac Service (QPCS) at Mater Children’s Hospitals registered Australia’s first paediatric cardiac patient in a remote monitoring system that allows patients with implanted cardiac monitoring devices to be examined over the internet.

The technology, dubbed the Medtronic CareLink® Network, enables patients to electronically transmit data from their implanted cardiac device (such as pacemakers, implantable cardiac defibrillators and implanted electrocardiography monitoring devices) to a secure internet site that can be accessed by the QPCS pacemaker service.

Paediatric cardiologist, Dr Jim Morwood said the system will potentially reduce the need for onsite checks of the patient’s device from the usual four times a year down to one.

“This is obviously of greatest advantage for our remote patients whom we care for from as far away as North Queensland, though it also provides more flexibility for all of our pacemaker patient families,” he said.

“Patients requiring changes in the settings of their device will still need to be seen in clinic but this is not required at the majority of pacemaker checks.”

Currently around one third of QPCS pacemaker patients are able to access the remote monitoring system.

“However, as time progresses the aim will be to have the vast majority of patients using this service,” Dr Morwood finished.

Image: QPCS patient Ryan Mitchell with his CareLink® monitor