Remote biometric monitoring technology company Biotricity recently announced securing National Institutes of Health funding from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute with plans to launch a study on Bioflux technology- His AI.
Bioflux-AI combines a small, highly accurate, FDA-approved, portable cardiac telemetry device with AI-driven algorithms specifically trained to predict stroke in patients with chronic kidney disease stage 4 and stage 5.
Supplier continues to deliver Remote patient monitoring technology for doctors and cardiac patients with a wearable, real-time set of heart monitors. In its recent 123rd quarter financial results, the company noted an expansion in coverage across the United States with 2,000 physicians across 29 states integrating the company’s remote patient monitoring devices into their practice. their economy.
IT news about healthcare sat down with CEO, Dr. Waqaas Al-Siddiq to better understand stroke prediction in CKD patients and advances in remote heart monitoring.
Q. Please describe what requires remote heart monitoring.
ONE. Remote heart monitoring focuses on non-invasive mobile devices that patients wear to continuously collect personalized electrocardiogram (cardiovascular system electrical activity) data that can help diagnose arrhythmias .
Remote heart monitoring comes in many forms: Holter monitoring, extended Holter monitoring, and mobile cardiac telemetry. The concept of active monitoring, where data is reviewed in real time, is only possible with portable cardiac telemetry.
No type of Holter monitoring has active surveillance capabilities. This can be misleading to consumers because of the word “monitor” in the title, but these devices lack connectivity and only record the patient’s electrocardiogram for later analysis.
Holter technology was originally designed to record a person’s electrocardiogram for 24 to 48 hours. Upon completion of the patient study, the device is returned, and the data is downloaded and submitted for analysis.
Extended Holter technology, recently developed, allows recording up to 21 days with most Expansion Holters being used between seven and 10 days. Extended Holter technology was created because heart problems are often intermittent, making one to two days of recording insufficient to detect these intermittent abnormalities.
However, for patients at higher risk, long-term recording is risky as it takes longer for patients to receive a diagnosis. Therefore, portable heart monitors are created for active monitoring for longer periods of time without risk to the patient.
Remote heart monitoring is the most benefit of remote heart monitoring because it monitors the heart in real time. For this form of monitoring, smart devices, with cellular connectivity, and not only record the patient’s electrocardiogram, but also analyze it in real time, looking for abnormalities.
When an exception is detected, the device transmits this information to the call center along with the data in question for intervention, if any. This real-time data transmission and analysis reduces diagnostic time and improves patient care, enabling early intervention that can save lives. There is no doubt that at-risk patients should have their heart measured remotely during remote heart monitoring.
Q. Your company recently received NIH funding from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute with plans to launch a study on your Bioflux-AI. Please explain clearly what Bioflux-AI is and what the study will cover and try to prove.
ONE. Bioflux-AI is an AI tool we are currently developing to advance algorithm-based arrhythmia detection and predictive building. Currently, we use device-based algorithms that we have developed to perform arrhythmia detection.
To move into predictable monitoring, we are developing Bioflux-AI for further data analysis, post-device analysis. To date, we’ve tracked over 220 billion heartbeats with 2 billion annotated and analyzed by experts in atrial fibrillation (AFib).
Because AFib can be difficult to diagnose, we focused on detection, with particular emphasis on AFib associated with other chronic conditions such as kidney disease or sleep apnea. Our first goal with Bioflux-AI is to develop complete and predictive AFib detection across various chronic diseases, after which we will begin to focus on other arrythmias.
The focus of this study was to review the prediction and detection of AFib in renal patients. More than half of patients with dialysis and chronic kidney disease die from heart disease, not kidney disease. Often it is the result of an undiagnosed arrhythmia such as AFib.
Our focus in this study was to collect data from renal patients to develop custom algorithms to detect AFib in these patients. The goal is to develop a prediction algorithm that can identify arrhythmias, or the likelihood of arrhythmias, early enough to support early intervention.
Q. How important is AI to this type of remote/remote patient monitoring?
ONE. AI is extremely important and necessary when it comes to longer monitoring periods. Shorter monitoring periods like one to five days are manageable without AI because of the smaller data flow.
Longer studies require more data, which makes sorting and analyzing without AI implementations much more difficult. I imagine a future where our biometrics are tracked not for days, but for months and years. For lengthy studies, there will be no choice but to use AI to screen and identify important areas for consideration.
Without AI capable of sifting through data to identify areas of focus, long-term follow-up would become too cumbersome for healthcare professionals, making adoption highly unlikely. . Traditionally, Holter technology was limited to two days because of the problem of too much data.
With expanded Holter technology and mobile cardiac telemetry, the increased time is supported by service providers or smart devices to analyze and review data for healthcare professionals. Without this support, adoption would be extremely difficult.
AI can take heart monitoring a step further. Because heart problems are the leading cause of death for both men and women and are intermittent in nature, the longer the data line, the better the diagnostic outcome.
Most importantly, for long-term patient support, long-term continuous heart rate recording is required to support patient involvement and management. Just as with diabetes, where continuous glucose monitoring assists patients in managing their condition, continuous heart rate recording is necessary to assist cardiac patients in managing the condition. their.
This level of data requires AI or deep data algorithms to analyze the data, otherwise healthcare professionals would not be able to manage the amount of data. This issue is unique to the electrical activity of the heart because the data for analysis are different when compared to blood glucose monitoring or blood pressure monitoring.
Then there are the high-level numbers that have normal and abnormal ranges. Heart rate will be their equivalent. In this case we are talking about the electrical activity of the heart, patient only, and the numbers or measurements being analyzed involve many measurements related to the signal, how that signal is represented. visual and how often they occur.
With ECG activity, one type of event may be considered benign, but multiple events occurring in succession are considered very high-risk. This complexity and multivariate analysis requires AI when electrically recording heart rate.
Similarly, as telemedicine and remote patient monitoring expand to include multiple data streams and biometrics, the complexity of analysis will increase. Cross-referencing data streams will require further analysis, and risks will vary from patient to patient, depending on their underlying condition or condition.
As the number of variables increases and access to data improves, the demand for AI and its importance will increase. Without it, healthcare professionals wouldn’t be able to sift through the data.
Q. Why is remote heart monitoring important to the future of healthcare delivery?
ONE. There are three important reasons that emphasize the importance of remote heart monitoring. First, heart disease is the number one killer in the world, and to help prevent many of these deaths, it is essential to monitor patients remotely to aid in earlier diagnosis.
Second, heart problems are intermittent and often asymptomatic, requiring long-term data collection to understand what’s going on. And third, chronic illness is the number 1 cost to the health care system because patients are diagnosed late and their condition requires them to be in and out of the hospital frequently, as opposed to diagnostic methods. Remote cost is lower.
Remote heart monitoring is instrumental in all of these situations.
In addition, many other chronic conditions increase a patient’s cardiac risk, further increasing the need for remote cardiac monitoring. Increased risk of heart disease manifests itself in a variety of areas, such as, but not limited to, patients with other medical conditions and patients taking different medications.
Over time and as life expectancy increases, so does cardiac risk, fueling an increasing need for remote heart monitoring. Remote heart monitoring supports remote care and provides insights that support better management and early intervention. In particular, it is a technology that brings value and benefits to both patients and providers.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
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