Remote Cardiological Care in Children with Drs. Seda Tierney and Scott Ceresnak

February is Heart Month, a campaign established by the American Heart Association that aims to raise awareness for heart diseases, a nationwide issue that affects all kinds of populations—even children.

However, with the effects of lockdowns still felt across the United States, in-person clinical visits and cardiological monitoring still may be not as frequent as they used to be prior to the pandemic.

And yet, telehealth and remote monitoring have played an increasing role in the interim.

In the years leading up to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, clinical programs and trials had already taken an interest in usage of such technologies, which can allow care teams to collect pertinent cardiological information outside the clinical setting.

Remote monitoring devices can prove to be beneficial for numerous reasons—yet there are obious drawbacks, namely the inability to fully substitute physical testings.

On the flipside, they can offer the possibility of enhancing cardiological care and ensuring fewer patients are lost to follow-up.

In this episode of DocTalk, Seda Tierney, MD, and Scott Ceresnak, MD, of Stanford Children's Health discussed the potential of remote monitoring among pediatric populations as well as the role of telehealth in cardiology.

Tierney is the Director of Research in Stanford’s Echo Laboratory. Recently, she worked on a study evaluating parental home use of echocardiogram technology in heart transplant patients.

Ceresnak leads Stanford Children’s Health tele EKG monitoring program, where doctors use such technology to monitor children’s heart conditions from their homes.

They talked about the the current and future state of cardiological care, remote monitoring, as well as their own work and role in their respective programs.

Tierney spoke on her recent study while Ceresnak offered perspective into the tele EKG experience.