What is Telemetry Monitoring?

What is telemetry monitoring?

Telemetry monitoring is a type of cardiac monitoring. Only difference is that a small transmitting device is attached to the person which transmits to the receiver elsewhere. This allows the person to move as well as be away from the main machine, within a given transmitting range of the device.

It is usually used when a person is being moved out of the intensive care unit to the room or a less monitored area when the disease process is better, but not fully cured. The initial 24 hours of monitoring after a heart attack is usually in an intensive care unit as the chance for abnormal heart rhythm and fluctuations in blood pressure are more likely in that period.

When the person is partially stable, telemetry monitoring helps in monitoring the heart rhythm during ambulation. The nurse or physician at the central monitoring station can watch the ECG rhythm live when the person is moving around. The system is also capable of giving an alarm in case of any siginificant abnormality in the heart rhythm or rate.

Telemetry has a wider meaning as well: to measure at a distance. It is also the term used for measured data from satellites and spacecrafts being transmitted to the earth.