Telemonitoring in Patients with Heart Failure

New England Journal of Medicine
March 17, 2011

To the Editor:

The study by Chaudhry and colleagues showing that telemonitoring did not improve outcomes among patients hospitalized for heart failure has several shortcomings. In other major studies, well-designed home telemonitoring programs that used more advanced forms of technology to support patient education and health care for patients with congestive heart failure have been shown to be successful in reducing unnecessary hospitalizations...

From our collective experience, the study's negative findings are due to an inadequate intervention and the design of the study itself and should not be taken as a denunciation of telemonitoring systems that enable patients to manage their chronic illnesses effectively.

Link to Full Article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1100395