St. John Providence in Southfield First in the World to Enroll Patient in Heart Failure Device Study

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Ascension’s Providence-Providence Park Hospital in Southfield today announced it is the first in the world to enroll a patient in the landmark clinical of a miniature, wireless heart failure monitoring device.

The device is called CardioMEMS and has already proven effective in helping to reduce hospital admissions and improve the quality of life for people with Class III heart failure, which is marked by fatigue, heart palpitations, and labored breathing. The study, called GUIDE-HF, will examine whether the device can improve patient survival rates and quality of life in a wider range of heart failure patients.

In a nonsurgical procedure, CardioMEMS implants a sensor in the pulmonary artery to directly measure pressure there. Increased pressure appears before weight and blood pressure changes, which are often used as indirect measures of worsening heart failure.

Participants can stay at home while transmitting daily sensor readings to their health care providers by turning on a portable electronic unit and resting on a pillow containing an antenna. The unit tells the patient to press the button to initiate a reading, which is wirelessly transmitted to a secure website.

“We know this technology has helped us to improve care outcomes for many heart failure patients,” says Marcel Zubghaib, cardiolgist and principal investigator of the study at Providence-Providence Hospital. “We are hopeful that the results of this study will allow us to expand its use to a larger patient population and to make even more of an impact on those living with heart failure.”

The prospective trial will enroll 3,600 patients at 140 hospitals across North America.

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 5.1 million Americans have heart failure.

Providence-Providence Park Hospital is part of Ascension, which operates 15 hospitals and hundreds of related health care facilities in Michigan. Ascension is a faith-based health care organization, the largest nonprofit health system in the United States, and the world’s largest Catholic health system.