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Doctor becomes patient of pioneering cardiac home monitoring service
68 year old Dr Edward Vernon explains the benefits of an innovative ECG home monitoring service, which will improve patients' quality of life and cut costs for NHS. Dr Edward Vernon, a retired GP from Staffordshire, suffers from arteriosclerosis. Dr Vernon suffered his first heart attack 15 years ago; fortunately he was able to receive medical attention straight away. He has since suffered three further heart attacks and has undergone two angioplasty procedures to unclog his arteries. Since his first attack Dr Vernon has been admitted into A&E a dozen times, each time meant spending several hours waiting for ECG test results and regularly being kept in for observation. Often the results showed that Dr Vernon's cardiac activity was normal. "The trouble with heart attacks is, they don't know about opening times, or emergency service waiting times. I used to attend hospital then, after an ECG revealed that nothing was wrong, I would feel like I had wasted everyone's time, but I didn't want to take any risks." Various other medical conditions manifest similar symptoms to those of a heart attack, making it difficult to identify the actual problem. Only an ECG reading can reveal whether or not the symptoms are indicative of a heart attack. There is solution that exists for people like Edward Vernon. Broomwell Healthwatch, has developed a cardiac home monitoring service, which, for the first time, allows those suffering from heart conditions to take a hospital-quality ECG reading from their own home and receive an instant diagnosis from a trained cardiac clinician over the phone. The palm-sized ECG device lets those at risk record the electrical activity of their heart, wireless technology is then used to transmit the results down a phone line to a cardiac monitoring centre established by Broomwell. A team of trained cardiac clinicians immediately check the reading and within minutes the patient knows the seriousness of his or her condition. Vernon believes that Broomwell's ECG monitor provides readings, which are just as effective as those taken in hospital. "The readings can be done quickly and easily. The ECG box is placed on my chest, I push a button to record the activity and another to transmit the reading down the phone line and the result is given swiftly thereafter. The whole procedure takes less than five minutes." Vernon would usually have gone to hospital if suffering from chest pains. He explains, "Not only do I save myself the hassle of going to A&E for hours on end, I now feel more confident to step out of the house and do more things such as taking a walk in the park." Vernon uses his cardiac ECG device two to three times a month, he also sends off a routine reading to be checked from time to time. Since he began using the device in 2004, there have only been two instances where Vernon's ECG readings have indicated any cardiac abnormalities, on these occasions he was admitted into hospital where he received medical attention to prevent his condition from deteriorating further. Broomwell operate a 24-hour service to respond to people's ECG readings and can be contacted easily and quickly from any country - within or outside of the UK. The battery operated device retails at around £200 and there is a monthly service charge of £30. Dr Vernon believes that using the ECG device at a local medical practice or health centre would be beneficial to both the patients and the health system. A recent 6-month pilot of telemedicine ECG tests by NHS North West, using Broomwell's handheld ECG device and monitoring service, showed 82% of patients did not need to go to hospital (neither A&E nor Outpatients) following the test. The report on the pilot projected savings of £46M per year, 90,000 fewer A&E visits and 45,000 less hospital admissions across England.
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