# Follow‐Up of Left‐Ventricular Assist Device Patients With Telemonitoring: A National Retrospective Multicentric Study on the Satelia LVAD Web Application

## TL;DR

This study shows that telemonitoring with the Satelia app can help manage LVAD patients in France, detecting risks and improving follow-up.

## Contribution

This is the first extensive study on using a dedicated telemonitoring app for LVAD patient follow-up.

## Key findings

- High compliance with telemonitoring was observed among LVAD patients.
- Orange and red alerts were frequently detected, with nearly half resolved through telemonitoring.
- The most common resolved alerts were related to the risk of cardiac decompensation.

## Abstract

Left‐ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are a major therapeutic option in advanced heart failure (adHF), improving survival rates and quality of life (QoL). Complications, however, can alter their prognosis. Specialized telemonitoring could facilitate LVAD follow‐ups and improve outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of telemonitoring for LVAD patients.

Patients, followed up with a web application (SateliaLVAD), were included in a national retrospective study at nine tertiary hospitals in France. Characteristics and detected hospitalization risk alerts data were collected. The risk of hospitalization was categorized based on a clinical algorithm (green: no risk, orange: heightened risk, and red: emergent contact with patient and possible hospitalization).

In total, 161 patients were included (male: 82.0%, mean age: 62.2 years). Indications for LVAD were mainly ischemic cardiomyopathy (82.0%) and bridge to transplant (50.3%). The mean follow‐up duration lasted 19.9 [1–45] months with 76 (47.2%) patients continuing telemonitoring. Compliance was high (79.0%). The main reason for cessation was death (30.6%). Total hospitalization risk alerts detected by telemonitoring were: orange alerts (n = 8265, 72.3%) and red alerts (n = 1613, 14.1%) with 48.5% of cases resolved (orange: 50.8% vs. red: 54.8%). The most frequent type of resolved alert was for a measured risk of cardiac decompensation (orange: 2227 vs. red: 382).

To our knowledge, this is the first extensive study to describe the follow‐up of LVAD patients by a dedicated telemonitoring application. Telemonitoring as a specific follow‐up tool may be feasible for this subpopulation. Future randomized studies on specific prospective evaluations such as survival and QoL are needed.

We evaluated the usefulness of remote monitoring for advanced heart failure patients using left‐ventricular assist devices (LVADs) in France. A national, retrospective study on a web application (Satelia) at nine locations was conducted. Specialized remote monitoring could facilitate LVAD follow‐ups and improve outcomes.