It was a historic procedure inside an operating room at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center. This month, the advanced heart failure team hit a milestone when they implanted their 100th CardioMEM remote monitoring device into the chest of a patient. Aurora St. Luke’s was the first in Wisconsin to implant this device three years ago and today ranks among the top 10 hospitals in the nation in total implants.

CardioMEMs technology measures pressure in the heart and transmits information wirelessly to the physicians at Aurora, who can adjust the patient’s treatment plan if needed. The program is credited with reducing heart failure admissions by 50 percent since its inception in 2015, and helps patients get back to a more normal life.

Dr. Nasir Sulemanjee leads the Aurora St. Luke’s CardioMEM program. Kate Chappell explains how the device works and how it’s changing the lives of patients suffering from heart failure.