In a world where cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death (with an estimated 17.9 million annual deaths globally, according to the WHO), the need to accurately and reliably monitor patients following cardiac procedures is ever-growing. This need is highlighted by the frequency of complications that occur following such procedures. For example, approximately 30% of patients experience problems with electrical conduction in the heart following an aortic valve replacement, leading to a dysregulation of heart rhythm (arrhythmias).
Currently, early detection of such complications is only possible if patients are monitored in the hospital using bulky, wired devices. Tools that enable remote monitoring following patient discharge hold the potential to improve patient outcomes and perhaps lower costs associated with unnecessarily prolonged hospitalizations. As such, VitalConnect recently announced the addition of arrhythmia detection to its remote monitoring platform, which uses the wearable biosensor, VitalPatch, to monitor 11 vital sign measurements.
The addition of proprietary arrhythmia detection software enables physicians to monitor patients who are prone to develop any one of the 22 unique forms of arrhythmias that VitalConnect’s software is able to detect, ranging from atrial fibrillation to left bundle branch block. Physicians can choose to start remotely monitoring patients using the VitalPatch either following a cardiac procedure or after a patient reports symptoms that may point to an arrhythmia. Implementation of this monitoring capability in a wearable patch adds to patient freedom and comfort.
Together with a cloud-enabled platform, Vista Solution 2.0, VitalPatch enables physicians to simultaneously monitor vital signs and cardiac condition of multiple patients on a continuous basis with clinically proven predictive analytics.
For more information on VitalConnect, check out their website or read some of our previous coverage.