Rate Control Self-adjustment in Patients With Permanent or Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Using Device Home Monitoring

Patients with permanent or persistent atrial fibrillation require rate control medication to prevent excessive tachycardia. Since too much medication leads to a lower than expected heart rate (low output and symptoms) and too little leads to a fast heart rate (with associated symptoms), finding the ideal medication level (target that could fluctuate) is vital for patient's wellbeing. Clinicians adjust the medication each time patients come into the clinic (once or twice a year). In between those visits, medication is not changed even though patients would benefit for some incremental medication adjustment. Patients implanted with Biotronik devices have access to Home Monitoring® (HM), a user friendly remote monitoring system transmitting daily device and patient information to clinicians. Heart rate and activity hours can be tracked and this information could be used to adjust medication. In a step by step process, patients will gradually gain autonomy in the weekly adjustment of their rate control medication. In order to guide medication adjustment by patients, the research team will filter and simplify the information received by HM before sending it to patients. It is hypothesize that patient empowerment, understanding the dynamics of their heart rates in relation to the amount of medication used, will lead to better heart rate control, and it will improve the daily hours of patients activity.