Patient's doctor just a heartbeat away on internet

Neville Hawker

A revolutionary surgical procedure that allows doctors to remotely monitor a patient's heartbeat over the internet was tried for the first time in New Zealand yesterday.

Neville Hawker became the first person in Australasia to be fitted with an electronic defibrillator that is connected to the internet.

The device will enable Mr Hawker's Hamilton surgeon to monitor the Tauranga man's heart performance using wireless technology.

Waikato Hospital cardiologist Dr Spencer Heald said it was like Mr Hawker having his own ER team at the ready inside his body. The electronic defibrillator can automatically kick-start Mr Hawker's heart if it decides to shut down.

While shopping with his wife two weeks ago, Mr Hawker's heart suddenly halted and he crumpled to the floor. "It wasn't a heart attack, just a short circuit that stopped it dead," he said.

Someone was on hand within seconds to save his life, but since then his recovery and treatment have entered new territory.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country, and it appears cyberspace could be the future salvation for some of those at risk.

Over at least the next six months, a signal will continuously be sent from Mr Hawker's heart along some small wire leads (planted inside a large vein) to a box inserted in the front of a shoulder.

From there the box will transmit data to a GSM cellphone he will carry around with him.

Data from the phone will be beamed via satellite to Biotronik in Berlin, Germany, before being sent back to New Zealand over the internet and arriving on his doctor's laptop at Waikato Hospital.

This will allow a cardiologist to monitor his heart rate over the internet - no matter what he is doing.

"I can't go dancing around a pole or anything," Mr Hawker joked yesterday as he prepared to go in for the 90- minute operation.

"But this is ground-breaking stuff apparently. They reckon every now and again there's a bit of a blip so they'll be keeping an eye on it over the computer. It gives me a lot of reassurance."

The most gratifying part was that he would get to see his daughter married in Hawkes Bay next Friday.

"I'm going, you bet your boots, boy," he said.

"You'll just have to put up with your wife's driving," Mr Hawker's wife, Robyn, added.

"I can't drive for six months," he explained, "because this thing has to have a settling-down period.

"The wires have to mesh with the muscles and embed themselves into the heart."

Dr Heald said the new system would help to reduce demand in the cardiac outpatient department and would be particularly useful for people who lived in isolated parts of the country.

"It's a significant advance on what we've had up until now."

About 1500 New Zealanders a year receive a pacemaker or similar device.

Globally, about 20,000 people have had the same kind of operation, but just 5000 of those are tapped into the GSM digital network for round-the-clock monitoring.

Grant Paul, the New Zealand spokesman for Biotronik - the company that manufactures the system, called Home Monitoring - said it cost around $25,000.