Researchers are looking for ways to cut down on hospital stays by monitoring patients from home.
Doctors are using a small sensor implanted in a patient's pulmonary artery, the one that carries blood from the heart to the lungs.
The sensor monitors blood pressure and transmits the readings by phone to the doctor's office.
"By monitoring those pressures on a day to day basis and treating accordingly -- keeping the pressures low -- we hope to avoid those episodes of worsening heart failure and hospitalization," Dr. William Abraham said.
It's estimated heart failure hospitalizations cost 33-billion dollars a year. The trial involves 550 patients at 65 heart centers in the U.S.
