St. Jude Medical, Inc. has just announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the Merlin™@home transmitter, an RF wireless technology that remotely monitors patients' implanted cardiac devices. The transmitter supports the St. Jude Medical Current® RF and Promote® RF family of devices and works in conjunction with the St. Jude Medical data management system, Merlin™.net Patient Care Network (PCN), to provide complete remote care service for patients and their physicians.

The transmitter addresses the situation where patients with implanted cardiac devices must visit doctors' offices several times per year to have their device performance checked. Since transmitters are capable of downloading and transmitting device data over telephone lines, patients are now able to initiate and perform many of these follow-ups in their own homes.

The Merlin@home transmitter's wireless technology allows the devices to be automatically checked, and follow up procedures without direct patient involvement. The patient need only remain within range of the transmitter while it reads his or her device. Patients also may initiate data transmissions as instructed by their physicians. The Merlin@home transmitter is transportable and can be set-up wherever a standard phone line is available, typically by the bedside for data transmission while the patient sleeps. Data downloaded by the Merlin@home transmitter is sent to Merlin.net PCN, a secure, Internet-based data management system, where it is stored for review by the patient's physician.
"We have simplified remote follow-ups to the extent that they are now something that can be performed seamlessly without interrupting the patient's day. Patients simply set-up the Merlin@home transmitter; after that, the system handles all aspects of patient follow up, including daily monitoring," said Eric S. Fain, M.D., president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiac Rhythm Management Division. "The simplicity of the system reduces the chance of patients missing follow-up transmissions."

The transmitter also features daily checks for alerts about device performance or about patient heart rhythms that may have been detected and can be programmed to alert a physician directly - including an on-call physician outside normal business hours.

"By directly alerting physicians, the Merlin@home transmitter and Merlin.net PCN can help reduce risks associated with cardiac episodes that physicians would want to know about right away," said Fain. "Without this notification, these events might go undetected for significant amounts of time. Direct notification is one more way to give physicians more control over their patient's critical health care."

The Merlin@home transmitter will be available in the U.S. early this fall and internationally in the fourth quarter.

Adapted from a press release from St. Jude. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=73836&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1174867&highlight=

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