St. Jude Medical, Inc. of St. Paul, MN, has announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the new version of the Merlin.net™ Patient Care Network (PCN). St. Jude says that the PCN is a "secure, Internet-based remote care system for patients with implanted medical devices." The system gathers and stores data from the implant procedure and follow-up visits. The updated device improves physician access and management of the patient's device. St. Jude says the Merlin.net PCN is also fully integratable with all standard electronic health record systems.

According to St. Jude's press release, the latest version of Merlin.net PCN has new options to its DirectAlerts® Notification feature, which can be used to alert a physician to changes in the device or the patient's disease state, including changes in certain diagnostic criteria between scheduled follow-ups. The changes would trigger the device to store the data, send it to Merlin, and notify the physician for review. St. Jude says the range of possible triggers now includes episodes of atrial fibrillation (AF).

"Developing a variety of methods to tackle the threat of AF through innovative technology is a major commitment that we have made at St. Jude Medical," said Eric S. Fain, M.D., president of the St. Jude Medical Cardiac Rhythm Management Division, in the press release. "Adding AF episodes to our alert options allows physicians to access information quickly when these episodes occur and take more control over the management of their patients' condition."

St. Jude describes the DirectCall® Message feature as providing pre-recorded messages that clinics can program to call patients to remind them of an up-coming scheduled follow-up transmissions, notify of a missed scheduled follow-up transmission, inform them that a remote transmission has been received and is normal, or ask them to contact the clinic. The new version of the patient care network also provides a Spanish language option for a wider population of patients.

The United States Census Bureau estimates that more than 34 million people, or 12 percent of the U.S. population, speak Spanish as their primary language. "St. Jude Medical is pleased to serve Spanish-speaking patients by providing them with information about their medical care in their preferred language," said Fain.

The Merlin.net PCN also has enhanced unique online scheduling tools. This includes a smart calendar feature allowing clinics to create schedules automatically adjusting for clinic holidays, and a customizable manual scheduling function.

Source: St. Jude Medical, Inc.

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