Implementing Digital Health in the Atrial Fibrillation Practice: Healthcare Provider Perspective

Interview With Jill Schaeffer, CRNP

In this onsite interview at the Western Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Symposium, we talk with Jill Schaeffer, CRNP, with Lancaster General Health in Pennsylvania.

Please introduce yourself.

My name is Jill Shaeffer, I am a nurse practitioner at the Heart Group at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health. I am excited to be here at Western AFib! I am a nurse practitioner who works with both inpatients and outpatients, and my clinical specialty is electrophysiology.

What can you tell us about your roundtable session at Western AFib? 

We are excited to talk about digital health, and how nurse practitioners and advanced practice providers administer care to patients with AFib. I will be sharing the roundtable with Erica Zado from Penn, Monique Young from Tulane University, and William Cho from the University of Utah. I have not actually met all of them yet, so we are hoping to share individual stories of how digital health is gradually increasing and how we take care of our patients.

What are some of the benefits and challenges of digital health technologies in the care of patients with arrhythmia? 

For me, digital health helps me take care of my patients by monitoring in between visits. We use low-tech methods such as pulse checks all the way up to Apple Watches and Kardia devices (AliveCor). And this field continues to grow. So not only do we have our medical ways of monitoring AFib, but my goal is always to get my patients to monitor themselves and manage their symptoms in-between their visits to the AFib clinic, and know when to notify us that something needs to be changed vs reassurance that everything is okay. The challenges to that is everyone is a little concerned that we do not have the ability to have 4000 Apple Watch tracings come in every day—we do not have the resources for that. So that is where the hope is in the future—that we will have more artificial intelligence to help. But I see that happening already. For example, the other day I had an elderly patient say to me, “I check my Kardia every day, but it always says green, so I know that is good.” It was really amazing to me that she understood, she was checking herself, and was pleased and reassured her treatment was working. So, I know there are a lot of concerns that maybe this is a technology for younger generations, and there are certainly some patients that are low tech and not interested in digital health. But more and more, we are seeing our elderly folks embrace these technologies, including with the help of their family. It is very exciting.

What is your favorite part about Western AFib?

My favorite part about Western AFib is that this is a meeting where it is everything AFib. The experts come from all over and they are who I call the giants of AFib. They present their studies and go over history, but they also talk about what is coming in the future. I find that very exciting compared to some bigger meetings. The whole session is in one big room, so I can look around and see who I consider to be “famous” AFib experts, and it is really exciting to learn from them. It invigorates me and makes me want to go home and read more. I always learn something that I did not previously know, so I find that very energizing.