DEFICARD: health card project for flexible decentralized patient management after implantation of a cardioverter defibrillator

Due to an increased number of cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) implantations and more than 1700 follow-up examinations (FU) per year for ICD-patients, the DEFICARD concept (PC-aided database, multifunctional microprocessor card) was developed at the University Hospital Hannover. The primary aim of DEFICARD was to delegate the FU work to other qualified outpatient clinics and to establish a flexible decentralized ICD-patient management of high quality. Since 11/1993 80 patients have received the DEFICARD and 195 FU visits have been documented up to June 1995. The main purpose of this first test phase of DEFICARD was to evaluate and to establish a standardized ICD documentation by chipcard as the fundamental basis of decentralized patient management and to analyze patients' acceptance. Results of the first analyses of pooled DEFICARD data showed high quality of documentation and a high patients' acceptance and cooperation could be observed too.