James Allred, MD
Originally published April 30, 2024 | Updated July 2026
The need for device clinic education has never been greater.
Remote monitoring has transformed how we care for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices. Information can reach a clinic quickly and continuously—but data alone does not care for patients.
It takes trained professionals to recognize what matters, interpret findings in the appropriate clinical context, communicate effectively, and ensure that the right action occurs at the right time.
As an electrophysiologist with a long-standing passion for device clinic care and as CEO of CV Remote Solutions, I have seen the same challenge across organizations of every size: practices cannot recruit, train, and retain qualified team members fast enough to meet growing demand.
At the same time, experienced device specialists are retiring, moving into industry, or leaving work environments that no longer provide sustainable workloads, professional growth, flexibility, or adequate support.
When a seasoned device clinician leaves, the loss is not measured only in head count. The clinic may lose years of practical judgment, institutional knowledge, mentorship, and continuity. Those capabilities take time to develop. They cannot be replaced simply by filling an open position.
Education Is a Capacity Strategy
Many device clinics are attempting to train new team members while simultaneously managing growing patient populations, daily alerts, scheduled transmissions, in-office evaluations, documentation, patient communication, connectivity issues, and administrative requirements.
A time-and-motion evaluation performed across 11 device clinics in the United States and Europe identified 54 distinct workflow tasks associated with remote and in-person management of patients with cardiac devices. The study demonstrated that this work requires substantial clinical and administrative time.[1]
The 2023 international expert consensus statement on practical management of the remote device clinic reached a similar conclusion: effective remote monitoring depends on appropriate staffing, defined responsibilities, staff training, continuing education, alert management, patient education, and ongoing quality improvement.[2]
Education, therefore, cannot be treated as something that occurs only when the clinic becomes less busy.
That day may never come.
Physicians appreciate and depend on the expertise of their device clinic teams, but most cannot serve as the sole source of technical and operational education. Device manufacturers provide essential product-specific training, but a multi-manufacturer clinic needs a broader foundation than any one company can provide. Experienced staff members are often asked to teach new colleagues while still carrying a full clinical workload of their own.
That is not a sustainable education model.
Technology Can Help—but It Is Not the Entire Answer
Software, automation, and artificial intelligence will continue to play important roles in device clinic operations. These tools can help organize information, prioritize work, reduce repetitive tasks, and make processes more consistent.
They can create capacity.
But software alone is not a workforce-development strategy.
Technology still requires thoughtful implementation, clinical governance, validated workflows, appropriate escalation pathways, and trained professionals who know when to trust a result, when to question it, and when to act.
The future is not a choice between people and technology. It is the responsible use of technology to support people—especially in the work that requires clinical judgment, communication, and accountability.
We Need an Educational Ecosystem
The encouraging news is that the number and variety of educational pathways continue to grow.
Formal academic programs, professional societies, certification organizations, manufacturer academies, independent education providers, virtual learning platforms, and employer-led training programs can all contribute to the development of device clinic professionals.
Harding University, for example, now offers a Master of Science in Cardiac Function and Interventional Technology through both a traditional full-time pathway and a professional pathway designed for people already working in cardiac patient care or the cardiac-device industry.[3]
The growth of these options is positive. No single format, organization, or course will meet every learner’s needs, however. A person preparing to enter the field may need something very different from an experienced nurse, technician, advanced practice professional, or device specialist seeking additional competency.
Rather than asking which educational provider is the single “best” solution, clinics should ask more practical questions:
- Does the education establish a sound clinical and technical foundation?
- Is the material relevant to the learner’s actual responsibilities?
- Does it prepare the learner to work in a multi-manufacturer environment?
- Is knowledge reinforced through cases, supervised application, and feedback?
- How is competency evaluated?
- Is there a development path from foundational knowledge to independent practice?
- Does the program support continued learning after the initial course is complete?
Education should not end when someone finishes a module, passes an examination, or receives a certificate. Those accomplishments are important, but they are milestones within a much longer professional-development process.
The Role of Professional Societies
Professional societies have an especially important opportunity to bring the electrophysiology community together.
Organizations such as the Heart Rhythm Society can help establish standards, expand access to education, support leadership development, and create professional communities for allied health professionals. Programs such as HRS’s Leadership and Education for Allied Professionals initiative recognize that the workforce needs more than technical instruction. Device clinic professionals also need coaching, professional networks, leadership skills, and visible career pathways.[4]
Societies can also provide a setting in which physicians, allied professionals, educators, manufacturers, health systems, and other stakeholders work toward a common goal without relying on any one commercial organization to define the educational standard.
Our Responsibility
Those of us who have worked in electrophysiology and device management have a shared responsibility to develop the next generation.
Electrophysiology fellows should receive meaningful education in device management so that they understand both the clinical work and the expertise of the professionals who help lead device clinics.
Clinic leaders should define role-based competencies, provide protected learning time, support appropriate certification, and build development pathways that allow employees to see a future within the field.
Experienced device clinicians should be given the time, resources, and recognition required to mentor others. Their knowledge should not be treated as an unlimited resource that can simply be added to an already full workload.
Manufacturers should continue to provide strong, accessible education regarding their technologies, devices, platforms, and safety information.
Academic institutions and professional societies should continue expanding rigorous and accessible educational pathways.
Technology and service partners should help reduce unnecessary work and create capacity so that internal clinical teams have more time to learn, mentor, and practice at the top of their abilities.
CV Remote Solutions’ Role
At CV Remote Solutions, we believe education is an important part of responsible workforce and capacity development.
Through our collaboration with MedAxiom, we have contributed to a structured foundational course for nurses, technicians, and other care-team members who are new to the management of cardiac implantable electronic devices.[5]
That course is one contribution to a much larger need. We do not believe that one company, one educational platform, or one course can close the device clinic workforce gap.
Progress will require collaboration among clinics, physicians, experienced device specialists, academic institutions, professional societies, manufacturers, educators, technology companies, and service organizations.
From Access to Mastery
Virtual education has dramatically expanded our collective reach. A learner no longer needs to live near a particular institution or travel for every educational experience.
But access to information is not the same as mastery.
Competency grows through structured education, case review, supervised practice, feedback, validation, repetition, and exposure to real clinical situations. It also grows through mentorship—through the opportunity to ask questions of someone who has encountered the difficult case, recognized the subtle finding, made the mistake, and learned from it.
Those who trained us made an investment that helped shape our careers. We now have a responsibility to extend that investment to others.
By sharing knowledge, supporting mentorship, building sustainable roles, and creating meaningful professional-development pathways, we can strengthen the device clinic workforce and help ensure that every patient receives high-quality care.
Education is not merely a recruitment tool or an operating expense.
It is a patient-care strategy, a retention strategy, and a capacity strategy.
The future of device clinic care depends on whether we build and support the people who will lead it.
References
1. Seiler A, Biundo E, Di Bacco M, et al. Clinic Time Required for Remote and In-Person Management of Patients With Cardiac Devices: Time and Motion Workflow Evaluation. JMIR Cardio. 2021;5(2):e27720. The study included 11 US and European clinics and found substantial time requirements across remote and in-person device-management workflows.
2. Ferrick AM, Raj SR, Deneke T, et al. 2023 HRS/EHRA/APHRS/LAHRS Expert Consensus Statement on Practical Management of the Remote Device Clinic. Journal of Arrhythmia. 2023;39(3):250–302. The statement specifically addresses staffing, workflow, training, continuing education, alerts, patient education, and quality improvement.
3. Harding University. Master of Science in Cardiac Function and Interventional Technology. The current program includes a ten-month traditional pathway and a primarily online, part-time professional pathway.
4. Heart Rhythm Society. Leadership and Education for Allied Professionals. HRS currently describes LEAP as a one-year leadership and career-development program for allied professional members.
5. MedAxiom Academy. Device Clinic Essentials for the Care Team. The currently listed nine-module course was developed by MedAxiom and CV Remote Solutions for team members new to CIED management.