Tag Archives: National Health Service

Background Ambulatory electrocardiogram (AECG) monitoring is a common investigation performed as part of the assessment of patients with known or suspected cardiac arrhythmias. This normally requires the patient to attend a face-to-face hospital appointment. The role of patient-led collection and self-fitting of AECG within the National Health Service (NHS) has not previously been investigated. In order to reduce patient contact during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in order to maintain AECG services while other non-urgent diagnostics were suspended, we sought to assess the feasibility, reliability, and patient acceptability of a drive-by collect

Introduction Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac rhythm disturbance in adults, estimated to affect 3.29% of the population in the UK in 2016.1 The condition is strongly associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, in addition to reduced quality of life.2 The healthcare costs of managing patients with AF are high: estimates of the direct cost in Western Europe range from €450 to €3,000 per patient-year.3 Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation is an established intervention in the management of several cardiovascular conditions, including coronary artery disease4 and heart failure.5 There is increasing re