South Jersey Cardiologist Says New Monitor Can Help Doctors Help Heart Patients
By Lynne Adkins
CHERRY HILL, NJ (CBS) -- Doctors in South Jersey are using a recently FDA-approved heart monitor to help patients avoid hospital stays.
The number one cause of hospital admissions is congestive heart failure, according to Dr. Robert Mohapatra, the director of the Congestive Heart Failure Program at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center.
He says when the CardioMEMS monitor is implanted in the pulmonary artery, doctors remotely keep track of lung pressure. When the data is troubling, the doctor can change the patient's medication over the phone.
"We're able to keep our patients out of the hospital and also to have them feel better, because a lot of the time, by making these changes, we are reducing the pressure measurements in their lungs and keeping them at a baseline, which I think is important as far as making sure they're staying out of congestive heart failure and feeling well and having a better quality of life," Dr. Mohapatra explains.
And keeping patients out of the hospital also saves money.
