[Non-device-based telemonitoring : Toy or tool?]

Non-device-based telemedical management can be useful to prevent decompensation and death in patients suffering from easily disequilibrated conditions like diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure (HF). This article summarizes current knowledge on non-device-based telemedical care for patients with HF. Several parameters (heart rate, heart rate variability, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, body weight, physical activity as derived from accelerometry, and occurrence of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias) have been identified as being associated with imminent clinical deterioration of HF patients. Structured telephone-based support and noninvasive telemonitoring with integrated electronic transfer of physiological data have been applied to care for HF patients and have been evaluated in multiple studies. The impact of telemedical care on clinical outcome appears to depend on the applied telemedical configuration and on the disease severity of targeted populations. The exclusive use of an automated telephone response system has not been successful. In patients with optimal medical therapy and relatively low decompensation risk noninvasive telemonitoring did not significantly reduce mortality. Nevertheless meta-analyses of structured telephone support and of noninvasive telemonitoring combining knowledge from available randomized trials suggest that both of these telemedical approaches may reduce the mortality risk of HF patients by 13-20%. The results of the Telemedical Interventional Management in Heart Failure II (TIM-HF II) trial on noninvasive telemonitoring versus usual care in 1500 high-risk HF patients are awaited in 2018 and will further clarify the usefulness of telemedical care in this field.