AliveCor, maker of an FDA-cleared, smartphone-based electrocardiogram device, is making the jump into remote patient monitoring. San Francisco-based AliveCor is partnering with Swiss company LifeWatch to include its mobile ECG in cardiac monitoring outside traditional care settings.
LifeWatch, of Zug, Switzerland, will offer the AliveCor Mobile ECG device and companion mobile app as part of its 30-day home diagnostic testing services in the U.S., according to AliveCor Chief Commerical Officer Doug Biehn. “It’s a much more convenient way to monitor a patient’s health,” Biehn said.
Physicians will have to prescribe the 30-day test, which LifeWatch then will administer. LifeWatch will provide each patient with a personalized care plan, which includes taking ECG readings twice a day; each reading takes just 30 seconds.
“That data will be ported into LifeWatch’s system,” Biehn said. The same information also will be available through the AliveCor app.
“The AliveCor Mobile ECG will enable LifeWatch to broaden its cardiac event monitoring services, whilst at the same time opening the door to post-event cardiac monitoring via a patient’s own mobile device,” LifeWatch CEO Dr. Stephan Rietiker said in a statement.
Photo: AliveCor
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A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
