Implantable medical devices powered by intelligent software have become so sophisticated, physicians can rely on them to remotely manage the health of patients with a broad range of chronic conditions.

Abbott scientists, technologists and engineers are the people behind the hardware and software responsible for the power of these life-changing innovations.

Remote Care Leads a New Era of Healthcare

Eshwar Pati, a principal engineer at Abbott, manages the DevOps (Development and Operations) team that oversees the servers for the remote care software that operate the pacemakers and heart monitors developed by Abbott’s Cardiac Rhythm Management business.

Eshwar is one of many Abbott technologists who develop and implement the latest features for patients and physicians who use remote monitoring technology. These next-generation devices and software are redefining patient care, offering flexibility, increased patience compliance, and streamlined patient management.

Abbott’s Merlin.net™ Patient Care Network (PCN) plays a key role in remote care support for physicians and patients. Eshwar and his team work behind the scenes on our remote care system, including implementation and integration, application security, from development through production.

The system imports and manages cardiac information for patients with Abbott implanted devices, such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators and heart monitors.

Physicians investigate any alerts from the device by accessing the data directly in the Merlin.net web portal and determine if any further actions are needed. Physicians can use these metrics to provide better guidance to patients, make changes to their prescriptions, or instantaneously deliver a digital prescription – all without requiring the patient to physically be at their offices.

“We’re moving toward tailoring the information to the users, such as physicians and clinicians,” Pati said. “Using filters, clinicians would pull only the relevant information for their specific patient. That’s personalized care.”

Additionally, remotely managing technologies eliminates barriers for people who live in areas where healthcare isn’t easily accessible and allows care to be delivered outside of healthcare facilities.

“In the future, AI will play a big part in interacting with the data and translating it for actionable metrics.” Pati said.

Pioneering the Digital Healthcare Revolution

The medical devices developed at Abbott require a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, programmers, scientists, and more. What does it take to work in this dynamic, ambitious field?

For Eshwar’s team, it’s important that candidates have a solid understanding of software architecture.

“The move to cloud computing will drive technology in healthcare at a faster rate,” Pati said. “To make our products work for more people in more places, we’re making access more scalable and robust.”