Managing pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) in the perioperative setting has always required a careful balance of preparation, judgment, and time. For anesthesiologists working in fast-moving operating rooms, the challenge isn’t a lack of guidelines—it’s accessing the right information quickly enough to use it.
The Periop Pacemaker app grew out of that exact problem. At its core, the app is a mobile adaptation of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Perioperative Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device (CIED) Management Aid, a resource already familiar to many clinicians through the ASA website. The Management Aid distills perioperative device management down to its most essential clinical decisions, and it has been endorsed by the Heart Rhythm Society and authored by the ASA’s Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia Committee.
What the app does is translate that guidance into a format that works at the bedside. Instead of scrolling through PDFs or trying to recall algorithms from memory, clinicians are guided screen by screen through the same ASA framework—designed to support real-time decision-making during preoperative evaluation, intraoperative management, and postoperative planning.
The app includes all currently available cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs), reflecting the reality that anesthesiologists encounter a wide range of manufacturers and device types in daily practice. In addition to a basic version, a professional version is available that incorporates radiographic identifiers, allowing clinicians to identify devices directly from imaging when documentation is incomplete or unavailable—a common real-world scenario.
Importantly, the goal of the app is not to replace consultation with electrophysiology or device representatives, but to clarify when those calls are truly necessary. By following the ASA-derived logic step by step, the app helps reduce uncertainty, unnecessary delays, and last-minute case cancellations that can disrupt patient care and operating room flow.
Ultimately, Periop Pacemaker reflects a broader shift in medicine: taking well-established, society-endorsed guidance and placing it into tools that align with how clinicians actually work. For busy anesthesia and electrophysiology teams, that means less guesswork—and more confidence – when it matters most.