Long-term patient acceptance of and satisfaction with implanted device remote monitoring.

AIMS: 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.

METHODS AND 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.

CONCLUSION: 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.