Real-time cloud-based monitoring at home will make hearts sing
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death in the EU. In 2015, there were more than 85 million people in Europe living with CVD. ECGs are an important diagnostic tool to aid physicians in both detecting and monitoring CVD. The EU-funded SmartECG project has developed a decision support tool to shorten the time, enhance the accuracy, and decrease the costs associated with ambulatory ECG analyses.
The needle in the haystack
ECGs are routinely used in a physician’s office, clinic, or hospital room. Typically, a few seconds of electrical activity of a patient’s heart are captured on a small roll of graph paper. The physician inspects the paper printout for abnormal activity in terms of timing and shape for signs of heart disease or dysfunction. In some cases, the patient is sent home with a wearable (ambulatory) Holter ECG device. The device monitors activity continuously over 1-2 days, or longer in the case of patients with chronic disease. At an average of about 70 beats per minute for adults, that makes over 100 000 beats in a 24-hour period. Visual analysis of such voluminous amounts of data is time-consuming, labour-intensive, and difficult.
After walking around, data goes up to the cloud
“We set out to create an ECG decision-support tool that enables more efficient processes and greater accuracy in diagnosing diseases, all in a solution that is user friendly,” project coordinator Laura Mattinen explains. To realise this, scientists developed automatic analysis algorithms to detect and diagnose common abnormalities. A patient can upload ECG data to the web-based system via an easy-to-use interface accessible from any web browser. No installation of software is required. Within minutes of receiving the data, the physician has access to analysis results. This means faster initiation of treatment and improved outcomes. The cloud-based system also enables collaboration among specialists and general practitioners caring for the same patient.
Pilots pave the way to optimisation and uptake
“We found that the combination of our automated ECG analysis technology and substantial dataset enable analytics and advice that we were not even expecting. Much of that credit goes to our highly gifted team but also to our track record with remote services in the field of cardiology,” says Mattinen. Clearly, patients are the primary beneficiaries with faster and more accurate diagnoses, thanks to comprehensive and detailed long-term ECG analysis. Primary and secondary physicians get a powerful diagnostic tool, an advantage compared to the competition. Finally, healthcare systems can expect lower overall costs associated with earlier treatment leading to fewer, more costly interventions. Chief Business Development Officer Patrick Francke adds, “The most important outcome was to validate the need for our innovation. Machine learning in cardiology is a domain that seems to be evolving toward ubiquitous use-cases. This process has taken its first leaps and we are supporting it through our SmartECG solution.” The SmartECG platform has now been granted a CE mark for a Class IIa medical device software, and the user interface is currently available in English and Finnish.
Keywords
SmartECG, electrocardiogram (ECG), analysis, data, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cloud, tool, long-term, accuracy, automated