Augusta, Ga. (March 28, 2023) – The Advanced Heart Failure Program at Piedmont Augusta reached a milestone March 23 by implanting its 400th CardioMEMS HF sensor, the first of its kind remote home monitoring system for heart failure patients.
For congestive heart failure patients, the CardioMEMS HF sensor provides real-time notification of patient changes and simple, convenient access to secure data for proactive, personalized patient management. It can lead to improved quality of life, lower hospitalizations and reduced mortality, according to Advanced Heart Failure Medical Director Darshak Karia, M.D.
“It also provides patients with a heightened awareness of the factors affecting their health,” Dr. Karia said. “This is powerful in that it returns to patients a sense of control and empowerment over their condition and their health.”
Piedmont Augusta is one of the nation's highest-volume CardioMEMS HF sensor implant centers. Patients are managed remotely by Dr. Karia, Shuchita Gupta, M.D., and Naveed Akhtar, M.D.; all board-certified Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologists. Since its inception in 2017, the Piedmont Augusta Heart Failure Remote Monitoring Program has made a tremendous impact by reducing the number of Emergency Department visits and hospitalizations for patients enrolled in the program.
The program's success is a team effort that includes physicians, nurses and cardiac device technologists who meet daily to manage and treat patients’ conditions preemptively before patients often even experience symptoms.
Piedmont Augusta has a 68 percent reduction in heart failure patient admissions within the first year after implant, and a 73 percent reduction in subsequent years, nearly twice the national outcome average.
The Advanced Heart Failure Center at Piedmont Augusta treats all facets of congestive heart failure and many other chronic cardiovascular conditions such as pulmonary hypertension, cardiac amyloidosis, cardio-oncology, genetic screenings, cardiac transplant evaluation and Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) therapy. The Piedmont Augusta Advanced Heart Failure Center can be reached at 706-774-7855 to schedule an appointment.