Data suggesting that weight and vital sign monitoring is ineffective as a stand-alone HF management strategy are supported by several large randomized clinical trials.  Figure 14 shows the results of one, the TIM-HF (Telemedical Interventional Monitoring in Heart Failure) trial, published in 2011, which used a particularly elaborate automated telemonitoring system for HF that tracked daily weights and vital signs on a routine basis from a centralized telemonitoring center.^[9]

In this trial, use of telemonitoring to assist treatment of HF resulted in no significant impact over usual care on the rates of HF hospitalization or, indeed, the rates of mortality in this trial.  These data add to a growing body of literature suggesting that there does not appear to be an incremental benefit of longitudinal monitoring of weights and vital signs over standard HF management for improving HF outcomes.

So while it seems intuitively clear that patients should do better with daily weight monitoring, it is not clear that this is an adequate form of longitudinal surveillance for HF patients.