St Jude Medical has announced the introduction of the latest version of its Merlin.net Patient Care Network (PCN) system, which is aimed at facilitating remote patient monitoring.

Version 5.0 of the system introduces Mobile DirectAlerts notifications, a secure new feature that allows physicians to receive information on important clinical events straight to their smartphones.

This means it will no longer be necessary for doctors to log in to a computer to view information on patient health records or implantable device data, making it easier to respond to potential issues.

Other new features included in the 5.0 edition of Merlin.net include the EHRDirect Export data transfer feature, an improved interface and other enhancements to its speed and usability.

Dr Eric Fain, president of the St Jude Medical cardiac rhythm management division, said: "This upgrade shows our commitment to offering physicians the technology necessary to provide efficient and secure solutions for the transfer of health data into those systems."

This comes after the firm last month launched the Unify Quadra, the industry's most compact cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillator.