Home monitoring program improves outcomes for heart patients

Remote monitoring can improve the condition of mobile heart failure patients and may reduce hospital readmissions, according to a pilot study. The study examined 150 patients admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. The patients, average age 70, were randomly selected to receive usual care for heart failure or remote monitoring. Hospital discharges for the heart failue increased from 400,000 in 1979 to 1.08 million in 2005, an increase of 171%.