West Berlin, NJ, June 15, 2026 – EPMedSystems, the New Jersey-based electrophysiology device manufacturer founded in 1993, and Trust Pharmacy, a North Carolina-based licensed medical supply and pharmacy operation with more than fifteen years in the market, are advancing a joint patient education initiative focused on medication management in the period following cardiac electrophysiology studies.
The two organizations bring complementary strengths to a gap that cardiologists and EP lab coordinators have identified consistently over the past decade: diagnostic technology in electrophysiology has grown faster than the downstream support infrastructure that helps patients understand, access, and correctly use the medications prescribed on the basis of those tests.
The collaboration centers on patients who undergo electrophysiology procedures using EPMedSystems equipment and then face a transition period during which they must start, adjust, or maintain antiarrhythmic drugs, anticoagulants, and rate-control agents, often with limited clinical contact and significant uncertainty about what each drug actually does in their body. The role of Trust pharmacy in this arrangement is to provide structured medication counseling content, affordable access to the relevant drug categories and monitoring supplies, and a consistent point of contact for patients managing cardiac medications at home.
What Happens After an EP Study and Why Medication Education Fails Patients
An electrophysiology study is a catheter-based diagnostic procedure in which electrode catheters are threaded into the heart to map its electrical activity, induce arrhythmias under controlled conditions, and identify the precise circuits or focal points responsible for abnormal rhythms.
The EPWorkMate integrated EP workstation from EPMedSystems receives, digitizes, and displays marker channels, RF data, and electrocardiogram signals in real time, while the EP-4 Computerized Stimulator delivers precisely calibrated electrical pulses to provoke and characterize arrhythmias that would otherwise be difficult to study noninvasively. The ViewMate II Intracardiac Ultrasound System adds real-time imaging inside the cardiac chambers, automating many ultrasound functions so the operator can focus on interpreting the rhythm data rather than managing equipment.
What these tools produce is a detailed electrical map of the heart’s conduction system and, in most cases, a definitive or near-definitive diagnosis: atrial fibrillation requiring anticoagulation, supraventricular tachycardia amenable to ablation or drug suppression, ventricular tachycardia in the setting of structural heart disease, or a spectrum of conduction system abnormalities that determine the medication regimen going forward. According to the American Heart Association, approximately 6.1 million Americans currently live with atrial fibrillation, and that number is expected to reach 12.1 million by 2030.
A significant proportion of those patients receive their AFib diagnosis or reclassification through an EP study, and nearly all of them walk out of the procedure needing to start or modify an anticoagulation regimen, often within 24 to 48 hours.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 30 observational studies published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (Ozaki et al., 2020) found that only 63 percent of atrial fibrillation patients remain adherent to their oral anticoagulants at six months, with that figure recovering only modestly to 70 percent at one year, meaning more than one in three patients is already off regimen within the first six months of initiation, with the most common reasons being:
- Confusion about the drug’s purpose and expected effect on symptoms
- Fear of bleeding side effects from anticoagulants, particularly in older patients
- The logistical difficulty of obtaining affordable refills on a long-term basis
- Lack of a clear point of contact for questions that arise between cardiology appointments
Patients leaving an EP lab have just experienced an invasive cardiac procedure, they are managing procedural recovery, and they are simultaneously being handed a prescription, sometimes several, for drugs they may never have taken before. In that environment, a five-minute discharge conversation with a nurse does not reliably produce the kind of medication understanding that sustains long-term adherence. This is the gap that the EPMedSystems and Trust Pharmacy initiative directly addresses.
EPMedSystems Equipment and the Diagnostic Decisions That Drive Post-Procedure Medication
To understand why post-procedure medication education matters so much in this specific patient population, it helps to look at the actual diagnostic outputs that EPMedSystems equipment generates and the clinical decisions those outputs trigger.
The EPWorkMate workstation is the central data hub in an EP lab. It captures multichannel electrogram signals from catheters positioned throughout the heart, records pacing and stimulation sequences from the EP-4 stimulator, and stores the entire study for review, comparison, and report generation. When an electrophysiologist uses this system to induce and characterize an arrhythmia, the findings feed directly into one of several medication pathways.
- Atrial fibrillation with or without structural heart disease drives anticoagulation decisions. The CHA₂DS₂-VASc scoring system, endorsed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, determines whether a patient needs anticoagulation and at what intensity. Most patients with confirmed AFib and a score of 2 or higher will be started on a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC), including apixaban, rivaroxaban, or dabigatran, or on warfarin if there are specific clinical reasons. These drugs require education on consistent daily dosing, food and alcohol interactions, signs of bleeding that warrant immediate attention, and the critical importance of never stopping without physician guidance.
- Supraventricular tachycardia that is not immediately ablated may be managed with beta-blockers such as metoprolol tartrate or succinate, or calcium channel blockers such as diltiazem or verapamil. Patients in this category need to understand rate control versus rhythm control as distinct goals, how and when to take their medication relative to symptom onset, and when breakthrough episodes require emergency evaluation.
- Ventricular arrhythmias in structural heart disease often lead to antiarrhythmic prescriptions, including amiodarone, sotalol, or mexiletine, that carry significant interaction profiles, require regular thyroid and pulmonary function monitoring in the case of amiodarone, and demand careful dose titration. The complexity of managing a patient on amiodarone who is also anticoagulated and has diabetes is considerable, and it is rarely reducible to a printed discharge sheet.
The MapMate interface within EPMedSystems’ product line allows physicians to integrate catheter navigation data with electrogram signals to create three-dimensional maps of arrhythmia circuits. When those maps confirm a substrate amenable to catheter ablation, the post-procedure medication picture may shift, but the window immediately after the procedure still demands the same rigorous education, because recurrence rates and residual risk vary and patients need to understand what changes to watch for.
The Role of Trust Pharmacy in the Medication Education and Support
Trust Pharmacy, operating under Trusted Medical Supply LLC in North Carolina, has built its catalog and service model around patients who manage chronic and cardiovascular conditions from home. The pharmacy maintains inventory across several drug categories that are directly relevant to post-EP care, including cardiovascular agents such as beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, and cholesterol medications, as well as the broader anticoagulant category central to atrial fibrillation management.
Beyond prescription drugs, the pharmacy carries an extensive line of home monitoring supplies from brands including Accu-Chek, OneTouch, FreeStyle, and Advocate, covering blood pressure cuffs, glucose meters and test strips, lancets, insulin syringes, and alcohol prep pads. These supplies matter to EP patients who also carry metabolic or hypertensive comorbidities, which describes the overwhelming majority of the AFib population in the United States.
The pharmacy’s approach to patient education in the context of this partnership operates on 3 levels:
- Product-level medication counseling. Pharmacist staff explain the mechanism of each medication in language the patient can retain and act on. For a patient starting apixaban after a newly confirmed AFib diagnosis, that means covering not just the dosing instruction but also why the drug works by blocking Factor Xa rather than vitamin K like warfarin, which drug interactions are clinically significant, and what symptoms such as unusual bruising or prolonged bleeding should prompt an immediate call to the prescribing physician.
- Monitoring supply integration. Catalog allows patients to combine prescription drug orders with the monitoring equipment their cardiologist recommends, including blood pressure monitors for patients on rate control agents and glucose meters for those with diabetes on rhythm control drugs. The ability to place one combined order covering a medication refill and a three-month supply of test strips reduces the friction that leads patients to delay restocking critical supplies.
- Refill adherence support. For patients on long-term anticoagulants or antiarrhythmics, the danger is not usually the first fill. It is the third or fourth refill, when the sense of urgency from the initial diagnosis has faded and small inconveniences become reasons to delay. Trust Pharmacy operates with a nationwide online platform that allows patients to set up repeat orders, receive notifications before their expected refill date, and track shipment status in real time.
The Specific Medications Post-EP Patients Receive and What They Need to Understand
The medication landscape for patients leaving an EP lab covers four primary categories, each with its own education requirements and its own risk profile if mismanaged at home.
| Medication Category | Most Common Agents | Key Education Points | Monitoring Requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anticoagulation (AFib) | Apixaban, rivaroxaban, dabigatran, warfarin | Consistent dosing schedule, bleeding signs, drug interactions, never stop abruptly | INR for warfarin; annual renal function checks for DOACs |
| Rate control | Metoprolol, diltiazem, verapamil, digoxin | Take at same time daily, recognize bradycardia symptoms, avoid abrupt discontinuation | Resting heart rate at home, periodic ECG |
| Rhythm control / antiarrhythmic | Amiodarone, sotalol, flecainide, propafenone | Organ monitoring for amiodarone (thyroid, pulmonary, hepatic), sun sensitivity, long half-life | Thyroid panel, PFTs, LFTs for amiodarone; QTc monitoring for sotalol |
| Adjunct cardiovascular | Statins, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, diuretics | Timing relative to meals, potassium monitoring with ACE/ARB and diuretics, muscle symptoms with statins | Electrolyte panels, renal function, lipid panel |
Among these, anticoagulation education carries the highest stakes and the most documented failure points. Bleeding events are a well-recognized complication of all anticoagulant therapies and represent one of the most consequential risk categories in long-term cardiac medication management, a concern reflected across FDA labeling for every approved anticoagulant drug class.
The transition from hospital or outpatient EP lab to home management represents the period of greatest vulnerability, because patients have not yet developed the daily habits that support consistent drug use, and they have not yet encountered the situations, such as a dental procedure or an OTC pain reliever purchase, that require them to apply what they were taught.
Warfarin management presents additional complexity because it requires regular INR monitoring to keep the international normalized ratio within the therapeutic range of 2.0 to 3.0 for most AFib indications. Patients on warfarin who manage their own monitoring at home need to understand how dietary vitamin K, found in leafy greens, certain oils, and many fortified foods, affects their INR and requires dose adjustments rather than avoidance of the food itself. This nuance is almost never adequately covered in a single discharge conversation, and Trust Pharmacy’s educational content framework is designed to extend that conversation into the weeks and months when it actually gets applied.
EPMedSystems’ NurseMate Station and the Clinical Handoff to Patient Education
One of the EPMedSystems products most directly relevant to how patient data moves from the EP lab to home management is the NurseMate Remote Review and Charting Station. NurseMate allows a nurse or clinical coordinator to access and manage patient study data stored on the EPWorkMate from a separate workstation, which means the clinical team can document study findings, flag medication decisions, and generate care summaries without occupying the EP lab itself.
For the purposes of this initiative, this remote access model creates an opportunity to attach patient education materials, including medication-specific counseling documents, monitoring instructions, and refill resources, to the clinical record at the point when the electrophysiologist makes the medication determination, rather than at the point of discharge when time pressure is at its peak.
The LinkMate image acquisition system, which connects the EPWorkMate to other imaging modalities and records images or video clips into the case record, also plays a supporting role. EP labs that document intracardiac ultrasound findings from the ViewMate II alongside electrogram data are building a more complete picture of the patient’s cardiac anatomy and function. A left atrial appendage that is heavily trabeculated on intracardiac imaging may inform the duration of anticoagulation more specifically than the AFib diagnosis alone, and that level of precision in the diagnostic record supports a more targeted medication education conversation downstream.
Why This Partnership Addresses a Structural Problem in Post-EP Care?
The structural problem that this initiative targets is not specific to any one EP lab or any one pharmacy. It reflects a systemic misalignment between where clinical expertise lives, in the electrophysiology laboratory with the cardiologist and the EP nurse, and where medication management actually takes place, which is at home, on an ordinary morning, when the patient is trying to remember whether they took their apixaban and whether the leftover ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet is safe to use.
EP labs equipped with EPMedSystems technology produce precise, reproducible diagnostic data. That data drives medication decisions that are increasingly nuanced. The choice between rhythm control and rate control in a patient with newly diagnosed AFib and preserved ejection fraction is an active clinical discussion guided by the EAST-AFNET 4 trial results and subsequent ACC/AHA guideline updates. Executing those decisions well at the population level requires that patients understand their medications well enough to take them consistently, recognize problems early, and communicate meaningfully with their care team between office visits.
Trust Pharmacy’s infrastructure, including nationwide online fulfillment, a catalog that spans both drugs and monitoring supplies, pharmacist-supported counseling, and a refill management system designed for chronic condition patients, fills the part of that chain that extends beyond the EP lab’s walls.
The combination of EPMedSystems’ diagnostic precision and patient-facing medication management capability creates a more complete arc of care: from the intracardiac ultrasound image that confirms atrial fibrillation, through the EP-4 stimulator protocol that characterizes the arrhythmia substrate, to the morning the patient opens their medicine cabinet and takes the right drug at the right dose with a real understanding of what it is doing in their body.
About Trust Pharmacy
Trust Pharmacy, operating under Trusted Medical Supply LLC, is a licensed pharmacy and medical supply company headquartered in North Carolina. The company serves patients across the United States through a nationwide online platform carrying more than 5,000 prescription and over-the-counter products, medical devices, and home monitoring supplies. The company specializes in serving patients who manage chronic cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory conditions from home, combining affordable medication access with pharmacist-supported counseling and a refill management system designed for long-term therapy. For more information about Trust Pharmacy and its cardiac medication supply catalog, please visit https://trustedmedicalsupply.com.
About EPMedSystems
Founded in 1993 and based in New Jersey, EPMedSystems develops and manufactures electrophysiology equipment for cardiac diagnostic laboratories across the United States. The company has built its product line around the full workflow of an EP study, from electrical stimulation and signal acquisition to intracardiac imaging and remote data review. Core products include the ViewMate II Intracardiac Ultrasound System, the EPWorkMate Integrated EP Workstation, the EP-4 Computerized Stimulator, the NurseMate Remote Review and Charting Station, and the LinkMate Image Acquisition system. EPMedSystems serves hospital EP labs and specialty cardiology centers, supporting electrophysiologists in the diagnosis and characterization of atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular arrhythmias, and conduction system disorders. For more information, please visit https://www.epmedsystems.com.