FloWave 1000 Monitor Promises Noninvasive Cardiac Output

One EKG lead. One pulse oximeter. Some secret stuff. And presto! Profit… and, of course, noninvasive cardiac output monitoring. Woolsthorpe Technologies, a Brentwood, Tenn. company, is reporting that its hemodynamics device FloWave 1000 is now being evaluated in clinical trials in Vanderbilt University Medical Center and in Saint Thomas Research Institute in Nashville, and in the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. The device, based on a single paired ECG lead, dual pulse oximetry sensor, and a secret proprietary algorithm, is designed to extrapolate patient’s cardiac output, cardiac index, stroke volume, heart rate, saturation, and more.
The device has been around for at least 4 years now, as this article from 2004 in Nashville Business Journal testifies. But since the company is putting out perky press releases, and The Tennessean reports about the company as the greatest thing since the sliced bread, our pulse and cardiac output go up slightly. Let us hope there is enough blood flow in the company to deliver on its promises.
Product page…