Ritmocore will be continued at Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), where the transformation of care management and care of patients with bradycardia and arrhythmias has already begun, with more than 1000 patients monitored. Almost a hundred people attended the presentation of the results of Ritmocore http://www.ritmocore-ppi.eu , in which the evaluation team expressed a very positive opinion of this innovative public procurement project. In addition to the Hospital de Bellvitge, the Hospital de Santa Cruz y San Pablo, and the Liverpool Chest and Heart Hospital in the United Kingdom are participating, with the coordination of AQuAS. https://aquas.gencat.cat/ca/inici
On behalf of the HUB, Dr Ignasi Anguera, director of the Arrhythmia Unit, spoke at the Final Project Review, highlighting that "remote monitoring has alerted our team to more than 60 atrial fibrillations that have been able to be intervened early, preventing them from developing into strokes".
According to Dr Anguera, "coordination with primary care has been so integrated that even from the HUB we have created a system of interconsultation between specialist nurses and primary care nurses, unprecedented in the Catalan health system, which is being extended to other hospital services beyond cardiology".
The results of Ritmocore have been possible thanks to the collaborative efforts between the professionals of the Cardiology Service and the Arrhythmia Unit, the Innovation, Economic-Financial, Information Systems, Talent Management and Communication teams of the HUB.
Ritmocore, a European benchmark in value-based procurement
This project was born out of the need to improve access and quality of care for patients with pacemakers, due to increasing demand and limited clinical resources.
To deploy this new model, a new innovative purchasing procedure for pacemakers has been used as a lever for change, whereby instead of products, services have been purchased. This risk-sharing model, which promotes public-private collaboration, has led to an increase in efficiency and effectiveness, while at the same time offering the best possible healthcare.
Specifically, this change of model has meant an improvement in care for patients with pacemakers. Thanks to remote monitoring, these patients have increased their confidence in the health system, have avoided trips to hospitals and feel reassured knowing that any alert goes directly to the cardiologist.
In this sense, the percentage of remote monitoring in pacemaker implants at Bellvitge, Sant Pau and Liverpool hospitals has reached 90% in just one year, while the national average is 10%.
During the Final Project Day, Irina Kalderon, member of DG CONNECT, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, said that "this project is in line with the actions that the European Commission is undertaking to respond to demographic changes in Europe".
The compilation of lessons learned during the 69 months of implementation and recommendations for future projects are available on the website http://www.ritmocore-ppi.eu. The Ritmocore project will continue to be rolled out for eligible HUB patients.