Consultations
What you can expect
Dr Oliver Segal
Remote cardiac device monitoring
Expert review of pacemaker and ICD data, without clinic visits
Remote cardiac device monitoring from the comfort of your home
If you’ve had a cardiac device implanted, remote cardiac device monitoring allows the heart data that it’s captured to be sent to Dr Segal anytime, including while you’re having heart palpitations. He can then securely review it and book you in for routine follow-ups or for urgent care if your data is concerning or you’re feeling unwell. It’s the reassurance you want that your vital heart information is being regularly and expertly checked, without the inconvenience of frequent hospital visits.
Once you’ve had a pacemaker or another implantable cardiac device like a defibrillator fitted, you traditionally need to visit a hospital or clinic once or twice a year for it to be checked. But that leaves big gaps in monitoring in between these visits, and it means that you’re not necessarily being monitored while there’s a problem or when you’re abroad or away from home.
Remote monitoring is the answer. It allows you to send information to your doctor from your implanted device, from the comfort of your own home.
Dr Segal uses Medtronic devices with the Medtronic MyCareLink™ remote monitoring network, which sends device information via the mobile phone network to the secure MyCareLink™ website for review. This allows him to carry out routine follow-ups and check your device data if you feel unwell. Some devices send information automatically, so Dr Segal can contact you and intervene before you may realise there is a problem.
There are three big benefits that come with remote cardiac device monitoring:
- Freedom – You’re free to live life more fully. Most people won’t have to travel to the clinic as often for heart device follow-up appointments and will only need one physical device check each year.
- Convenience – With only one-button and a screen to guide you, you can easily transmit device information over a standard cellular phone network. If you have a pacemaker, ICD (defibrillator), CRT-P (biventricular pacemaker), CRT-D (biventricular ICD) or Reveal LINQ II™, device information is sent automatically while you sleep.
- Peace of mind – You’ll have a sense of reassurance knowing that Dr Segal has access to important information about your heart, even if you can’t easily get to a clinic where your device can be checked or if you’re often out of the country.
If you have a pacemaker, ICD (defibrillator), CRT-D (biventricular ICD) or Reveal LINQ device, alert notifications are sent directly to Dr Segal, 24 hours a day. Leadless pacemakers and people without mobile phones need to send manual transmissions.
Dr Segal offers remote monitoring to all his patients with pacemakers, ICDs (defibrillators), biventricular devices (CRT) and Reveal LINQ II™ devices (implantable loop recorders), as all of these can require frequent or urgent attention in certain situations.
He always offers remote monitoring to patients who live far away from London and find it difficult to come to the clinic or for people with pacemakers who travel frequently and want the peace of mind of knowing that he can check their device when they are abroad.
Remote cardiac device monitoring FAQs
Wireless devices
Wireless Medtronic devices e.g. ICDs (defibrillators), some biventricular devices (CRT) and the Medtronic Reveal Linq implantable loop recorder come with a monitor, called a MyCareLink monitor. This monitor is usually kept in your bedroom and plugged into a power socket. Each night, at about 2am, your device and the monitor ‘talk to each other’ wirelessly. Any abnormalities with your device are detected and sent to the CareLink web-portal via the monitor using a 3G phone signal. If a significant problem is identified, I am alerted via an email, meaning you are monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Every three months I will ask you to send me a manual transmission from your device. A manual transmission sends me everything from your device since its last check but you can also send information at other times, if you have had symptoms.
The CareLink Monitor is very easy to use. It has a screen with diagrams telling you what to do to make a transmission and effectively only has one button. A green tick is displayed to tell you a transmission has been sent successfully. It sends information over any cellular 3G phone network in any country you happen to be in. You don’t need to be signed up to any network; it works on all of them.
We schedule dates for you to routinely send information from your device to us using your MyCareLink monitor (usually every 3 months).
Device information is also sent automatically for the Reveal Linq device while you sleep if abnormal heart rhythms are detected.
Device information is sent automatically from the remote monitor to a secure computer server
I review the device information on a secure website and alert you if there are any problems.
It is often useful for you to send a manual transmission using the MyCareLink monitor. This ensures all the device’s information is transmitted and clears the device for new information. This is the same process you will need to do when first setting up the monitor or if you take it abroad. Please follow the instructions below for how to do this:
Make sure the MyCareLink monitor is plugged into a power socket.
The MyCareLink will show it is receiving a 3G wireless phone signal by showing a picture of an aerial mast and some blue bars. An arrow will point to the grey button.
Press the grey button.
Lift up the transmission module.
Place the transmission module over your device and watch the MyCareLink monitor screen for the green bar. This shows the device is relaying information.
The module can be replaced in its dock. When the green tick is displayed, the information has been successfully sent to the CareLink portal and will be available for me to examine.
If you have an ICD (defibrillator), CRT-D (biventricular ICD) or Reveal Linq device, information from your device is sent to the monitor every night at approximately 2am, as long as you are within 2m of the monitor and there is a cellular signal. This is why we ask patients to locate the monitor in their bedroom on their bedside table if possible. Any device malfunctions that are detected generate an email alert to me. It is sometimes necessary to ask you to also perform a manual transmission (as per the section above) to ensure all device information is sent.
If you have an ICD (defibrillator), CRT-D (biventricular ICD) or Reveal Linq device, information from your device is sent to the monitor every night at approximately 2am, as long as you are within 2m of the monitor and there is a cellular signal. This is why we ask patients to locate the monitor in their bedroom on their bedside table if possible. Any device malfunctions that are detected generate an email alert to me. It is sometimes necessary to ask you to also perform a manual transmission (as per the section above) to ensure all device information is sent.
Patient confidentiality is a priority of the CareLink Network. The website is secure, protected by username and password. Only I have access to your device information.
If you have further questions please get in touch with my PA at pa@oliversegal.com or on 020 7034 8278.
For further information please also see Medtronic’s MyCareLink website: https://www.medtronic.com/uk-en/index.html
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