First multi-centre evaluation of a knowledge-based implant-assistant for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.

Aims: Modern implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) place increasing demands on the physician, as their complexity requires more and more knowledge and effort in handling them. To overcome this problem an implant-assistant has been developed, which transfers clinical data entered by the physician into a complete set of parameters for programming a dual-chamber ICD (Tachos-DR, Biotronik, Berlin, Germany) at DFT testing (DFT-Prog) and first permanent programming (Perm-Prog) after implant.

Methods And Results: Routine ICD implantations were initially evaluated by clinical experts at 19 centres in USA and Europe from 178 patient files.

Multicentre evaluation of a rule-based data filter for home monitoring of implanted cardioverter defibrillators.

We developed a rule-based data filter for the automatic interpretation of data transmitted from implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs). The feasibility and user acceptability of the data filter were tested in a multicentre study. Fifteen European centres analysed 10 cases each.