An Invitation to Share Your Story
Dear Colleagues,
End-of-life planning can be a challenge for patients, loved ones, and health care providers. As heart rhythm professionals, we are sometimes called on to alter or withdraw therapies intended to save or prolong lives, including deactivating ICDs. The Heart Rhythm Society has developed a document on device monitoring that touches on device deactivation [see sidebar]. However, each patient situation is unique, impacted by cultural and religious beliefs, clinical status, and a host of other factors.
One of the best ways to enhance patient care and professional satisfaction is to learn from the experiences of colleagues. To that end, the Society is building an online library of EP and device experiences related to end-of-life care. The library will consist of anonymous vignettes highlighting particular challenges and/or successes around device deactivation, antiarrhythmic therapy withdrawal, or other end-of-life issues.
| In May 2008 The Heart Rhythm Society and the European Heart Rhythm Association prepared HRS/EHRA Expert Consensus on the Monitoring of Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED): Description of Techniques, Indications, Personnel, Frequency and Ethical Considerations. The Expert Consensus document (PDF, 172K) is the first to offer guidance on the management of CIEDs from the time of implantation until explantation or the patient’s death. |
The Society is asking you, as heart rhythm professionals, to share your stories, both positive and negative, so that others can learn from your experiences and provide better care for patients facing the same tough decisions. Stories can be very brief or quite extensive, and may highlight successful care, a situation that could have been better, a challenge of incorporating cultural or religious beliefs into patient care, the impact or lack of institutional guidelines, or another valuable experience. All stories and vignettes will be de-identified to protect the privacy of patients, providers, and institutions.
Please contact the Heart Rhythm Society via e-mail at ethics@hrsonline.org to share your story. You may provide a brief summary of the experience along with contact information so that a member of the Working Group can contact you with questions. All information will remain strictly confidential.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Heather M. Ross, MS, APRN, NP, Working Group chair, at ethics@hrsonline.org.
Respectfully,
Heather M. Ross, MS, APRN, NP
