Imagine this scenario: A 30-year-old woman with congenital heart disease (CHD) is preparing for what should be a routine surgical procedure. She has been cleared for surgery and completed her doctor’s pre-op instructions. However, due to her congenital condition, she is at increased risk of intraoperative arrhythmias and hemodynamic instability.

For most adults, a life event like surgery comes with a very clear plan for preparation, recovery and follow-up care. But for adults with CHD, however, even minor procedures or typical life events like pregnancy or simply aging can pose an increased risk.

Unlike individuals who have no existing heart conditions, those with CHD require heightened vigilance to detect complications before they escalate. Despite these risks, many CHD patients undergo surgery and other events without pre-surgical cardiac monitoring or access to specialists who understand the nuances of their condition. 

With fewer than 500 board-certified adult CHD cardiologists in the U.S., specialized care is not always readily available and nearly half of CHD patients are lost to follow-up after adolescence, with many having not seen a cardiologist in over five years. This lack of consistent oversight can leave adults with CHD vulnerable to complications that could have been proactively identified and even prevented with more proactive management.

This is growing, and the need for better longitudinal monitoring is growing along with it. AI-driven virtual cardiac telemetry is emerging as a valuable tool in bridging this gap, offering critical near real-time insight that detects early warning signs before they escalate. By providing continuous insights and enabling early intervention, AI-powered solutions are reshaping the future of CHD management—helping patients navigate life events like surgery, pregnancy and more with greater safety and confidence.

The Growing Need for Advanced CHD Management in Adulthood

With an estimated 1.4 million adults living with CHD and medical advances enabling more patients with CHD to live long and fulfilling lives, the demand for specialized lifelong care continues to grow. While all cardiology patients have unique medical histories, congenital heart disease patients are particularly diverse due to the wide range of congenital heart defects and how they manifest over a lifetime. Each has a unique heart anatomy and surgical history, necessitating a more personalized approach to ongoing management. 

While some patients with CHD require no additional procedures, others require periodic interventions, such as valve replacements or catheter-based procedures. Others may develop progressive heart failure later in life due to their congenital condition. And the risks can increase as patients grow older. 

According to one report, more than 50% of CHD patients over 18 develop arrhythmias by age 65. Regardless of their individual condition and its severity, all adult CHD patients should have access to lifelong care to manage and track the progression of their anatomical condition. The management of CHD as an adult is a complex, lifelong process that extends beyond the routine cardiology care delivered in a primary care office—however, access to this ongoing care is key.

Unfortunately, there is a limited number of board-certified adult CHD specialists in the U.S.—currently less than 500—forcing many patients to navigate complex healthcare logistics on their own, from securing prior authorizations and out-of-state referrals to managing insurance hurdles. These challenges underscore the critical need for consistent, specialized care throughout adulthood—especially during major life events that can place additional strain on the heart and require heightened cardiac vigilance. But not all high-quality care needs to be delivered within the doctor’s office.

For CHD patients whose conditions require ongoing surveillance, remote cardiac monitoring offers a seamless, unobtrusive solution that enhances patient outcomes and improves quality of life. By providing continuous, near real-time heart data, remote monitoring enables early detection of arrhythmias and other complications before they escalate. This proactive approach reduces the need for frequent in-person visits, minimizes hospitalizations and ensures that patients receive timely interventions—all while alleviating the burden on an already-constrained healthcare system.

By integrating remote cardiac monitoring technology into lifelong care strategies, healthcare providers can ensure that every CHD patient has access to the specialized attention they need.

Key Life Events That Demand Ongoing Cardiac Monitoring for CHD Patients

For adults living with CHD, many life events introduce new risks—risks that can be better understood, managed and offset with the help of remote cardiac monitoring. The addition of AI to standard remote cardiac monitoring solutions is a force multiplier in solution impact by enabling unprecedented scalability and granularity of insight. Let’s explore how AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring can reshape the management of CHD through clinically significant life events like pregnancy, surgery and aging. 

Pregnancy

While most women with CHD can have a successful pregnancy, it requires careful planning and discussion with the healthcare team to protect against complications. Increased cardiovascular stress, as well as the increased volume of blood in the body during pregnancy, can trigger arrhythmias, heart failure, blood clots, or hemodynamic instability. 

In fact, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the single greatest cause of indirect maternal mortality. In some cases, maternal mortality rates can be as high as 28% for patients with CHD. And women with CHD also face a higher rate of fetal mortality and premature birth.

Given these heightened risks, women with CHD require a multidisciplinary approach, including the coordination of cardiologists, obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine specialists to ensure the safest possible outcomes throughout pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period.

Clinicians can utilize virtual cardiac telemetry in multiple ways to support pregnant patients with CHD, as it offers valuable insights into how a patient’s heart responds to the physiological stress of pregnancy. Monitoring can be conducted episodically—for a limited period each trimester—or continuously throughout the pregnancy, depending on the patient’s risk profile.

Beyond pregnancy, AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring remains valuable in the postpartum period, offering cardiologists critical insights into heart health during the days and weeks following delivery—a time when patients with CHD face heightened risks of complications, including thromboembolic events. AI can assist by identifying significant trends and providing longitudinal data to help assess a patient’s cardiac risk for future pregnancies.

Surgical Procedures

Surgery always carries some level of risk, but for CHD patients, even routine procedures can carry additional complications. Anesthesia and surgery pose higher perioperative risks for CHD patients. In fact, 20% of CHD patients experience complications from surgery. General anesthesia can induce arrhythmias, which can occur in up to 70% of patients when used for various surgical procedures. Patients with underlying structural heart disease, including CHD, are at an even greater risk for developing both supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias during anesthesia induction.

High-risk CHD patients should take extra precautions, like undergoing surgery in facilities with expertise in congenital heart disease and collaborating with anesthesiologists and cardiac specialists to minimize complications and optimize recovery. For lower-risk CHD patients, remote cardiac monitoring is a useful solution for increased vigilance without significant overhead or clinical burden.

Clinicians can leverage virtual cardiac telemetry to enhance preoperative and postoperative care for patients undergoing cardiac or other high-risk surgeries. AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring provides valuable insights into a patient’s baseline cardiac function before surgery, helping to identify arrhythmias, ischemic changes, or other cardiovascular risks that could impact surgical outcomes. Continuous or episodic monitoring before surgery enables early intervention, optimization of medical therapy and risk stratification to improve perioperative planning.

Postoperatively, AI-driven remote cardiac monitoring remains crucial in tracking a patient’s recovery, detecting early signs of complications such as arrhythmias, myocardial strain, or thromboembolic events. This near real-time monitoring allows for proactive clinical decision-making, reducing hospital readmissions, alleviating strain on the healthcare system and improving long-term patient outcomes. AI’s ability to analyze trends over time also empowers clinicians to tailor follow-up care, adjust medications and assess the patient’s readiness for rehabilitation or subsequent procedures.

Aging and Comorbidities

As CHD patients age, they are at an increased risk of developing additional cardiovascular and systemic health issues. Conditions such as hypertension, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, valve disease and more tend to manifest earlier and more frequently than in the general population.

Comorbidities such as diabetes, kidney disease and pulmonary hypertension further complicate cardiac management, making routine monitoring and timely intervention even more critical. At the same time, arrhythmias—already common in CHD patients—become even more prevalent with age, increasing the likelihood of stroke, sudden cardiac events and the need for pacemakers or implantable defibrillators. For CHD patients managing comorbidities, remote monitoring provides critical insights into the evolving interplay between cardiac function and conditions such as diabetes or chronic kidney disease. 

As patients age—whether transitioning from pediatric to adult care, entering midlife, or managing health in later years—these comorbidities can compound cardiovascular strain, increasing the risk of complications such as arrhythmias or heart failure exacerbations. AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring delivers near real-time data on heart rate patterns, rhythm irregularities and overall cardiac stress, enabling early detection of clinical deterioration. By identifying subtle changes in heart rate variability or detecting arrhythmic events, clinicians can proactively adjust medications, recommend lifestyle modifications, or initiate interventions before a patient experiences acute complications.

For diabetic patients who are at risk of cardiac autonomic neuropathy, changes in heart rate variability can signal evolving cardiovascular dysfunction, making continuous monitoring a valuable tool for guiding both glycemic and cardiac management. Similarly, those with chronic kidney disease face an elevated risk of arrhythmias due to electrolyte imbalances and altered cardiac function. AI-powered monitoring can help detect these issues before they lead to severe complications.

Beyond its role in disease management, remote monitoring also alleviates the logistical burden of frequent in-person visits, which can be particularly challenging for patients with mobility limitations or those navigating care from multiple specialists. By enabling continuous oversight without disrupting daily life, this technology allows patients to remain in their homes while still receiving expert-level, individualized management, improving both clinical outcomes and quality of life.

By enabling proactive interventions and reducing emergency hospitalizations, AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring helps CHD patients stay ahead of potential issues and maintain better long-term heart health. Instead of waiting for an annual check-up, AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring establishes digital transparency with cardiac clinicians, opening the door to more proactive and personalized CHD management. 

Harnessing AI for Lifelong Heart Health

AI-powered remote cardiac telemetry presents a powerful paradigm shift in CHD management. For CHD patients who are navigating high-risk life events, this technology provides transformative insights, supports timely intervention, reduces healthcare expenses and enables better long-term outcomes.

By integrating this ‘missing piece’ into lifelong CHD care plans, healthcare providers can bridge the gap in specialized care and empower CHD patients to navigate life’s milestones with greater confidence. 

The future of CHD care is about more than survival—it’s about patients truly thriving, and AI-powered remote cardiac monitoring has an important role to play in making that future a reality.

Source:MPO