Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is piloting a remote monitoring system for selected patients with heart failure in Northern Devon over the next six months. Through this exciting project, the Trust is aiming to improve outcomes for patients with heart failure, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and help the heart failure team prioritise face-to-face appointments with those patients who need them most.

Patients who have been identified as suitable for the pilot will be given the opportunity to monitor their health from home using a remote monitoring platform and equipment that directly connects to the heart failure team. This allows the patient to record and send the team daily information about their blood pressure, heart rate and weight.

From their base at North Devon District Hospital (NDDH), the heart failure team can use this data to ensure that the patient remains within pre-set clinical parameters, or if not, the team can make timely interventions where needed, such as optimising heart failure medication. This could potentially avoid an admission to hospital.

Crucially, patients are given a tablet with a data SIM included so that they can still take part in remote monitoring if they do not have their own device or internet at home, which makes the service more accessible.

There are particular benefits for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), as the pilot enables access to the specialist care of the heart failure team at NDDH. These patients would usually be discharged to the care of their GP after diagnosis, however this pilot provides a route for the patients to now access a period of support from the team before being discharged back to their GP.

Patients who are on the remote monitoring programme will be able to access the heart failure team via telephone for any queries they have during their remote monitoring period. The heart failure team will also be able to arrange face-to-face reviews if the monitoring information suggests that this is needed. 

Angie Tithecott, Lead ACP - Heart Failure at NDDH, said: “We are delighted to be able to offer this exciting pilot to our heart failure patients in Northern Devon, and we hope that in time it will show a reduction in avoidable hospital admissions. In addition, we are excited about the potential this has to help our team work in the most efficient way, ensuring we are using our time and expertise to deliver the best value for our patients.”

This pilot will complement the Trust’s Acute Hospital At Home (AHAH) pathway, which is a separate project. Both pathways aim to provide a safe and effective alternative to an acute hospital admission, but whereas AHAH offers continued hospital-level care for those discharged following a hospital stay and can enable earlier discharge, remote monitoring provides an enhanced level of monitoring and follow-up for patients who do not need hospital-level care but who may be at risk of hospital admission, and can prevent admissions.

The funding for the pilot has come from NHS England’s Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme (InHIP), which aims to address local healthcare inequalities experienced by deprived and other under-served populations through the use of the latest health technologies and medicines. We are seeking patient, carer and staff feedback throughout the pilot, and it is being evaluated with support from the South West Academic Health Science Network. The learning from this will inform any future remote monitoring services.

Pictured from left to right: Dr Chris Gibbs, Consultant Cardiologist, Rob Miller, Heart Failure CNS and Angie Tithecott, Lead ACP Heart Failure