• Silvia Mariani, Jasmin S Hanke, Günes Dogan, and Jan D Schmitto.
• Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
• Artif Organs. 2020 Aug 1; 44 (8): 873-876.

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic touching thousands of people all around the world. Patients supported with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are affected by long-standing cardiovascular diseases and subjected to variations of the normal cardiovascular physiology, thus requiring an even closer monitoring during the COVID-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a drastic reduction in routine clinical activities and a consequent risk of looser connections between LVAD patients and their referring center. Potential deleterious effects of such a situation can be a delayed recognition of LVAD-related complications, misdiagnosis of COVID-19, and impaired social and psychological well-being for patients and families. As one of the largest LVAD programs worldwide, we designed a sustainable and enforceable telemonitoring algorithm which can be easily adapted to every LVAD center so as to maintain optimal quality of care for LVAD patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.© 2020 The Authors. Artificial Organs published by International Center for Artificial Organ and Transplantation (ICAOT) and Wiley Periodicals LLC.

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