Vital Connect, a Silicon Valley startup founded in 2011, and cardiac monitoring device developer LifeWatch have partnered to launch Vital Connect’s Healthpatch MD for patients with arrhythmia and other heart conditions, which transmit data directly to doctors.
LifeWatch, based in Switzerland, will provide the platform for Healthpatch, an FDA-approved, CE-Marked device that transmits “medical-grade” data for analysis by the LifeWatch. The HealthPatch MD, which is quite literally a small adhesive patch, can be worn on a patient’s chest 24 hours a day, at home or work and while exercising or bathing, according to Vital Connect.
The patch is also capable of continuous wireless transmission of vital signs, including electrocardiography, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, activity, including step count, and posture and body position relative to gravity for fall detection. That data will be available to physicians who use the device.
Remote and mobile cardiac monitoring, or cardiac telemetry, is a growing market, having reached $688 million in 2011 and with growth expectations of 25 percent through 2016, according to a recent report from IHS InMedica. And the devices are reportedly more effective than traditional monitors.
A research study published in Medical Devices: Evidence and Research 2014, found that mobile cardiac telemetry devices detected more than twice as many arrhythmias as Holter monitors or cardiac event recorders in a retrospective review of 200,000 patients.
And it’s certainly far less invasive than a pacemaker or other devices, Vital Connect CEO Nersi Nazari said.
“Physicians need accurate measurements to properly diagnose a cardiac condition. However, if patients are required to wear equipment with wires that prevents them from engaging in their regular daily activities, they will be less likely to adhere to monitoring instructions,” he said. “We designed HealthPatch MD as a device that patients can put on, wear comfortably and forget about for days at a time without sacrificing the quality of the real time data being collected.”
