Content courtesy of Ivanhoe

Heart failure affects more than five million people in the United States and it's the number one reason people over 70 are hospitalized. For patients, even the slightest change in diet or routine can turn into an emergency. Now, a new kind of monitoring system keeps a closer eye on their condition at home.

For George Marra, living with heart failure means spending a lot of time in hospitals and doctor's offices. He's constantly trying to keep fluid levels in his lungs under control.

Marra is part of a trial for a device that's already changing his life. Doctors implant a tiny sensor that measures pressure in the pulmonary artery, which carries blood from the heart to the lungs.

"If you were a really sick patient in a hospital, we'd be measuring that with tubes going into your lungs, but this device allows us to measure that in your home," Nicholas Chronos, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at St. Joseph's Translational Research Institute in Atlanta, Ga., told Ivanhoe.

Marra sends daily pressure readings to a central monitoring site.

"In the morning, I get up and go in and lay on the pillow and it takes a reading and transmits it over the internet to St. Joe's, and if there's a problem, they let me know," Marra explained.

Dr. Chronos says the daily updates allow him to identify problems quicker and keep patients out of the hospital.

"Before, we’d wait for George to get sick," he said. "He would turn up in an ER, get admitted, we have given the diuretic; but now we can phone him up everyday and tell him, 'Hey, you are doing very well. Just stay where you are,' or 'You need to take some more diuretic.'"

Just a couple minutes a day keeps Marra's heart in check and his mind at ease.

"I can honestly say I'm even better … like the energizer bunny," Marra described

Because the remote sensor system sends information through phone lines and the internet, doctors say they're able to monitor a patient's condition almost anywhere. The cardioMEMS trial is still recruiting heart failure patients.