Long-term patient acceptance of and satisfaction with implanted device remote monitoring.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate patients' acceptance and satisfaction of the Home Monitoring (HM) remote control system after 1 year of follow-up by a self-made questionnaire (HM Acceptance and Satisfaction Questionnaire, HoMASQ) specifically designed for this purpose.


RESULTS
The HoMASQ contains 12 items designed to investigate five different aspects strictly connected to patient's acceptance and satisfaction of remote monitoring: (i) relationship with their healthcare provider, (ii) easy of use of HM technology, (iii) related psychological aspects, (iv) implications on general health, and (v) overall satisfaction. Each item was rated on a five-point scale: from 0 to 4 with favourable responses score > or =2. The theoretical maximum total score (the highest detected acceptance and satisfaction level) was 48. The HoMASQ was given to 119 patients followed by HM during the 1-year follow-up visit. Ninety-nine percent of all the administered questionnaire items were answered. The mean total score was 40.8 +/- 5.4 with a mean percentage of favourable answers of 96.3 +/- 18.8% (CI 95.2 - 97.2%). The mean scores for each of the five areas of the HoMASQ were: 3.0 +/- 0.9 for relationship, 3.4 +/- 0.6 for easy of use, 3.4 +/- 0.9 for psychological aspects, and 3.4 +/- 0.8 for clinical implication and overall satisfaction. Cronbach's alpha for reliability of the HoMASQ was 0.73.


CONCLUSIONS
A high level of acceptance and satisfaction after 1-year remote control by HM was detected by the five-point scale HoMASQ, which showed a good internal reliability.
Ricci
Renato Pietro
RP
Department of Cardiovascular Diseases, San Filippo Neri Hospital, Via Martinotti, 20, Rome 00135, Italy. renatopietroricci@tin.it
Morichelli
Loredana
L
Quarta
Laura
L
Sassi
Anna
A
Porfili
Antonio
A
Laudadio
Maria Teresa
MT
Gargaro
Alessio
A
Santini
Massimo
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000628:therapy*; D054537:Atrioventricular Block / Q000628:therapy; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012804:Sick Sinus Syndrome / Q000628:therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D019462:Syncope, Vasovagal / Q000628:therapy