Fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic, remote heart monitoring could become tech’s next big target

It was a shift that began long before the pandemic: Tech companies, health providers, and patients alike were increasingly looking to remote devices like miniature electrocardiograms and blood pressure cuffs connected to the internet that let clinicians keep tabs on care from afar. Now, with virtual care emerging as a safer alternative to in-person care, remote heart monitoring tools may be having a breakout moment.

Size Matters--for Heart Monitors

The same technological advances that shrank telephones miniaturized heart monitors, with far-reaching implications for heart health.

What I Learned While Wearing a Heart Monitor

After the exchange of a few emails, my doctor ordered an at-home, 30-day heart monitor. It’s a marvel of modern technology. Electrodes on my chest fed my heart’s rhythm, over wires, to a recorder on my belt, which wirelessly communicated the data to my physician. With onboard software, it continuously monitored for signs of a heart attack. As amazing as this technology is, it wasn’t amazing enough. The wires tickled my torso and puffed out my shirt.

Heart monitor links patients to doctors using the one thing they’re unlikely to forget—their phones

Insertable cardiac monitors are USB-sized devices that are placed under the skin to record heart rhythms. The devices help diagnose the cause of fast or slow heartbeats, palpitations, fainting spells and unexplained stroke. The monitors are typically synched to a handheld device for patients to record irregularities and a bedside transmitter that sends data to doctors overnight. With Confirm Rx, smartphones fill those roles and eliminate the need for additional devices.

Highly flexible, wearable, and disposable cardiac biosensors for remote and ambulatory monitoring

Contemporary cardiac and heart rate monitoring devices capture physiological signals using optical and electrode-based sensors. However, these devices generally lack the form factor and mechanical flexibility necessary for use in ambulatory and home environments.

Living with an implantable loop recorder

Your loop recorder monitors your heart rhythm all the time and will automatically send information to the hospital should it see very fast, slow or irregular beats. This is through a monitor which is left in your house, close to where you sleep. You can also send two to four recordings a day when you feel symptoms by pressing a button on a remote which we will explain how to use at the hospital.

Pros And Cons Of Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote patient monitoring is of great help not only for patients but for healthcare professionals as well. However, RPM is still not available for all sick people depending on their location and remote access capabilities. Besides, doctors have to pay effort in order to engage patients and motivate them to use RPM. And finally, the main drawback of this technology is the unproved accuracy of devices. As long as the possibility of imprecision exists, the effectiveness of RPM will remain uncertain to many.

Remote Patient Monitoring Lets Doctors Spot Trouble Early

Such a merging of wireless technology and medical care is still in its infancy, but health systems that began pilot programs with the technology in recent years say they see signs that it is keeping patients healthier. By enabling doctors to continuously monitor patients, they say, the systems can detect problems well before they grow serious.

The role of remote patient monitoring in mobile health

I have witnessed firsthand the dawn and benefits of RPM over time. I look forward to the partnerships of RPM, mobile health, health IT, and non-tech patient-centric care.

Wearable Health Monitors: Do They Work?

The explosion in smart devices—phones, watches, fitness gadgets and the like—has unleashed a wave of apps designed to manage chronic illnesses, detect behavioral diseases and manage pain. Most recently, Apple announced that apps due later this year will allow its Series 4 watches to perform electrocardiogram readings, or ECGs, and notify users of irregular heart rhythms. The problem for consumers is knowing which apps—if any—actually work.