Cardiovascular disease is the cause of death for approximately 2,200 Americans each day, according to the American Heart Association. That averages out to about one death every 40 seconds. And about 92.1 million adults in the U.S. are living with a form of cardiovascular disease or stroke after-effects. The costs of cardiovascular disease and strokes, direct and indirect, total more than $316 billion annually.
The inability to monitor a patient’s heart rhythms outside of a hospital or ambulance is a major contributor to these shocking statistics. Electrocardiographs (ECGs) are used to monitor cardiac activity, and the results can be recorded to observe any irregularities a patient’s heart health. However, they are only found in places such as hospitals and ambulances and this isn’t a foolproof way of testing as they have often resulted in inaccurate results.
Thanks to today’s technological advances, we are now able to monitor a patient’s heart rhythms using a small adhesive patch that is attached to their torso and feeds data to a monitor. That data can then be transmitted, via wi-fi signal, to their physician who will review and interpret the cardiac events. Use of this remote cardiac monitoring is saving lives and lowering the cost of patient treatment.
The medical device giants, Philips and General Electric, have been dominating the field for decades. Although, with the introduction of remote cardiac monitoring devices, new market competitors, such as Preventice Solutions and iRhythm, are beginning to capture market share by going a step further to offer an interpretation of the data before it reaches a physician by use of artificial technology.
In the very near future, we can expect to see manufacturers of smartphones, such as Apple and Samsung, introducing various physiological sensor applications to monitor things such as stroke volume, cardiac arrhythmia, blood pressure, and heart rate. This will be the spark of moving the healthcare ecosystem entirely to a true digitization at a much faster rate than we ever imagined.
Technology companies such as Optum, IBM, and Hitachi are working to tackle the predictive power of strokes and heart attacks. There’s hope that these remote cardiac monitoring devices will reduce the morbidity and mortality rates for American’s with cardiovascular disease in the future. In turn, there’s hope for a much higher potential for saving lives and seeing a lower cost for healthcare for the American people.