Pacer Recording

How long information is kept

by Theknotguy - 2021-08-15 21:48:30

I talked with my EP about how long the pacemaker keeps the information it gathers.  He indicated the day-to-day information is periodically erased by the techs after their reading.  However that information was called into question when I ran into problems a couple of years back.  

There is a long hallway at the hospital where I volunteered.  It's 954 feet long (Don't ask why.) and I'd run out of air at 900 feet.  I could almost mark the brick in the wall where I'd run out of air and have to stop.  Talked with my EP and he ran  some tests.  They did one adjustment, then brought in a mfg rep from Medtronic.  The mfg rep and I got into a discussion and I was able to tell him the day and almost to the minute of when I had my problem.  The mfg rep brought up some screens I'd never seen before and identified the exact minute when I had my problem.  The solution was an adjustment to rate response that wasn't available to regular techs.  I asked the mfg rep if the information he had was available to the regular techs and he said no.  Oh, and the information he brought up had been erased by the regular tech.  

I'm guessing the pacemaker keeps a compressed record of everything and the computer program the mfg rep has, has the ability to pull that information back.  Question in my mind is if Medtronic pulls the pacemakers back to the factory and then pulls out the entire history of the pacemaker?  Don't know.  But if I were Medtronic, that's what I'd be doing.