Implantable Bluetooth Pacemaker Streamlines Remote Monitoring

A novel pacemaker that pairs to a home monitor provides timely automated alerts and patient triggered warnings when symptomatic.

The MicroPort CRM (Clamart, France) Alizea Bluetooth Pacemaker is cardiac rhythm management (CRM) device with two sensors (an accelerometer and a minute ventilation sensor) that adapt the physiologic response to suit patient activity. The two sensors continually cross-check each other, preventing unnecessary rate increases due to artifacts. Features include SafeR, an AV node management solution that reduces ventricular pacing while managing long PR intervals; SAM, a sleep apnea monitoring tool; and AutoMRI mode, which detects an MRI field and automatically switches to asynchronous mode.

Alizea connects via Bluetooth to SmartView Connect, a home remote monitoring system that offers patient monitoring and follow-up, timely alerts and detailed reports on the patient, removing the need for hospital-based routine examinations and reducing burden on the healthcare system. It also offers customizable alerts, including alerts that oversee system integrity, ensuring the pacemaker’s continuous function; alerts that indicate potential dislodgement or lead fracture; and notifications of post-MRI device function.

“We successfully launched Alizea in Europe in June 2021, and Japan is the second region to benefit from its advanced technological functions,” said Benoît Clinchamps, President of MicroPort CRM, on the occasion of regulatory approval of the Alizea in Japan. “As part of our commitment to improve the lives of as many patients as possible, and to support healthcare professionals in their mission, we will continue to deploy Alizea and Smartview Connect around the world.”

“Around 64,000 patients are implanted with a pacemaker each year in Japan, and coupled with the difficulties that have arisen from the current health crisis, there is a growing need to monitor patients remotely, without them having to travel,” said Noboru Shimizu, VP of MicroPort CRM sales in Japan. “Thanks to Alizea pacemakers and its SmartView Connect monitor, we are positioning ourselves in the Japanese market with the very best in cardiac pacing. I am convinced that this will allow us to strengthen our presence in Japan.”

Within the right atrium of the heart is a natural pacemaker that sends an electrical stimulus that travels from the pacemaker (the SA node) to the ventricles (the AV node). In the presence of an AV block, the transfer of the electrical nerve conduction that regulates the normal, rhythmic, pumping action of the heart muscle is interrupted or slowed.

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