Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a portable heart-monitoring device that allows patients to screen for a range of heart conditions at home.
The Alivecor KardiaMobile device can be used to detect conditions such as atrial fibrillation and super ventricular tachycardia. Whenever a patient senses certain symptoms, such as heart fluttering, skipping a beat or palpitations, they place two fingers on the sensor pads of the device. It then records their heart activity before sending the results to the cardiology team through a smartphone app, allowing them to assess the recording.
“Previously, patients monitored for arrhythmias would have been asked to wear sensors attached to their chests, or have recorders implanted under the skin to track their heart’s electrical activity. So we are really pleased to have the new devices, which are not intrusive for the patients at all but still transmit data quickly and accurately,” Nicola Montalbano, senior chief cardiac physiologist and head of cardiac physiology, said.
The use of the remote monitoring device can reportedly help to “potentially speed up their diagnosis and reduce pressure on the trust by allowing patients to be monitored accurately while at home.” As part of the process, patients must use the device for a two-week period and download the designated app to create their own profile.
Using digital technology to improve heart health services: the wider trend
A team of researchers at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have created an AI tool designed to read ECGs and support doctors identify those at risk of developing the potentially fatal heart condition, heart block. AIRE-CHB has been developed with support from the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and funding from the British Heart Foundation. It has been trained on over 1.1 million ECG heart recordings from 190,000 patients in Boston and tested on a further 50,000 people from the UK, said to allow it to detect the earliest signs of heart block and identify patients who will encounter problems later on in life if the condition is left untreated.
A PhD study supported by the Royal Papworth Charity’s Innovation Fund has been exploring the use of wearables in monitoring patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). It looks to assess accuracy in estimations of peak VO₂ levels during everyday activities, hoping to enable earlier intervention in cases of deterioration. The funding enabled the purchase of six wrist-worn and six chest-worn research-grade wearables, which, pending ethics approval, will be used to monitor around 60 CHD patients from across the country over a period of several days.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust are taking part in a wider NHS study, trialling the use of AI scanners to help reduce hospital readmissions for people with heart failure, also allowing patients to manage their condition at home. Developed by the medical technology manufacturer, Heartfelt Technologies, the scanner is an at-home device that takes “thousands of detailed images” of patients as they get in and out of bed. Said to detect the build-up of fluid in their legs, a known cause of swelling called oedema, the trust notes is “a sign that their heart failure is getting worse”.
