The FOLLOWPACE study: a prospective study on the (cost-)effectiveness of routine follow-up visits in patients with a pacemaker.

In the Netherlands, following implantation of a pacemaker (PM) commonly two or three out-patient follow-up visits are scheduled in the first year to check the patient's health and the PM programme, in order to guarantee optimal patient outcome. Anually, about 200,000 follow-up visits of 20 minutes are performed, in total about 80,000 working hours. The question arises whether and to what extent these regular follow-up checks are truly necessary for the prognosis of the patient and whether they are cost-effective. Yet no information is available on how frequently and extensively a routine PM follow-up visit should be performed. This is probably because it is largely unknown which factors - either documented at PM implantation or at the follow-up visits - predict the occurrence of complications. The FOLLOWPACE study is designed to address these issues. Below we briefly discuss the rationale, objectives and expected results of FOLLOWPACE.