Smart phone apps for Medtronic pace makers good for patient?or good for company?

 My pace maker battery life is on the downslope  of available electrons.This week I had an in office PM interrogation and the company tech took the opportunity to promote their new option ( for some units) namely an app for a smart phone to replace the bed side transmission unit I have now. 

I personally believe the patient  should  have full access to all of the information typically displayed on the interrogation reports.What Medtronic seems to offer to the smart app holder is the battery voltage reading and the expected battery lifetime and the daily activity.   You will need to use your app to send in the interrogation to the Medtronic mother ship from which your physician or the third partly interrogation report reader company can access the report.

So  now it seems that  gathering the data from your Pace Maker and transmitting  it to Medtronic falls upon the patient and his internet connection and his modem/router. while previously all of that was done by the hardware and software supplied by the pace maker company. You did not need an internet  connection or even a phone line which in the past was a means of sending in data to the company/

My thinking is that the current bed side system works well and I see no reason for me to take on the responsibility of the care and feeding of the electronic mechanisms and hardware to transmit the interrogation.When and if the bed side unit fails or wears out Medtronc will send you another without charge.When your smart phone dies you will replace it .

In 2013 the Heart Rhythm Society published a position  paper on the issue of remote interrogations (RI) and remote monitoring  (RM) of CIEDs ( cardiac implantable electronic devices).  As pointed out in the HRS paper, RI and RM are often used interchangeably with RM being used " colloquially for both"