17 September 2024
Whether you work in healthcare or not, you’re probably well aware of the current threat of cardiovascular disease. More than 1 in 3 Americans over the age of 20 received care for cardiovascular risk factors in 2020, according to a recent study. This issue touches nearly every family, with personal as well as systemic implications: Cardiovascular disease cost the U.S. healthcare system nearly $627 billion in 2020. The challenge remains just as formidable at a global scale: Roughly 32% of deaths worldwide in 2020 were attributable to cardiovascular disease. That’s even more troublesome given a specialist shortage that has effectively made almost half of the counties in the United States healthcare deserts, lacking a practicing cardiologist.
We would have plenty of reasons to innovate cardiac monitoring if these numbers were to hold steady. After all, patients, caregivers, providers, payers, and governments are already feeling the strain.
But they aren’t just holding steady. The total costs for cardiovascular conditions are projected to rise to $1.851 trillion by 2050, a near-tripling. And, additional research suggests that 90% of adults are at risk of developing heart disease.
This rise in heart disease prevalence is also a health equity issue: It will affect Black and Hispanic Americans disproportionately, adding to the moral and regulatory imperative to proactively address the challenge.
While there are a range of innovative payment models and new treatments that could hopefully make this rise more manageable, the healthcare sector needs to dig deeper to truly move the needle. That means shifting to proactive care—and focusing on the underlying technology and interdependencies that will get us there.
There’s a common saying that applies in this scenario: What got us here won’t get us there.
The good news is, we’ve already seen an explosion in innovative heart health tech over the past few years. We see signs of this innovation every year at the HRX conference, and a wide range of exciting advancements in artificial intelligence, telehealth, and remote monitoring are already improving patient care.
Since ECGs are here to stay as the leading diagnostic tool for cardiac health, we need to look closely at enhancing ECG collection and interpretation. After all, AI is only as effective as the ECG data it is trained on—so that data needs to be comprehensive and accurate. Telehealth and remote monitoring are only viable options if clinicians can rely on the ECG readings they have from their patients—so those readings need to be clear, usable, and trustworthy.
But today we are at a pivotal nexus of opportunity and hope thanks to ongoing innovation.
There’s no single medical device or tool that is going to spare us from the strain of soaring cardiovascular disease diagnoses. But an entire ecosystem that operates more effectively is a different story. If cloud- and chip-based companies alike can put more efficient algorithms into their devices, then ECG readings can become more efficient across the board. If providers and Certified Cardiographic Technicians (CCTs) can spend less time interpreting noisy signals, then they can spend more time supporting additional patients, providing accurate diagnoses, and delivering excellent care. When everyday consumers know that their doctors can trust the data coming out of their smartwatches, rings, or other wearables, they are more likely to invest in them and make cardiac monitoring a standard part of their self-care. And if providers can enhance their trust in the accuracy of data from consumer wearable devices, they are much more likely to recommend to patients as proactive, preventative tools.
Advanced signal processing will be key to lifting up this ecosystem. By cleaning up dirty ECG signals, we can make sensors and devices across the board more effective. Imagine a world where every ECG signal—even those coming from everyday consumer wearables—is clinical-grade, easy-to-read, actionable, and unlikely to require additional testing for confirmation. That’s a world that’s much better equipped to handle the rising number of cardiac patients.
At the end of the day, innovations and efficiencies in healthcare are all pointed at one major goal: helping people.
Cardiovascular disease doesn’t just take a toll on people’s physical health. It stresses their mental and emotional wellbeing, as well as that of their loved ones. Providers also bear the strain managing this chronic condition, and are increasingly incentivized financially and culturally to support preventative versus reactive care. Proactivity will rely on a clearer picture of patients’ health—including those patients who are young and may not traditionally be referred for cardiac care early enough for intervention, even though data suggest younger patients increasingly should be.
As always, the golden trifecta of people, process, and technology must be balanced. That’s why we’re so enthused about the introduction of HeartKey® Rhythm —our latest FDA-cleared software library of medical-grade ECG algorithms and analytics. One of the reasons it provides a significant step forward is it has been shown to reduce low quality events for review by 39.4% and total events for review by 17%, with incredible ripple effects for the entire diagnostic workflow.
We are at a critical inflection point in cardiac care. But we don’t have to go from zero to sixty when it comes to signal clarity innovation.
We began investigating signal clarity decades ago, when B-Secur first started academic ECG research in the 2000s. Our roots in biometric security mean that precision has been built into our DNA—and we’re proud to bring that precision to the healthcare space at a key moment.
There’s other proof, too, that innovators have been rising to the challenge: Cardiology is the specialty with the second-most FDA-cleared AI algorithms. Many of these algorithms are focused on streamlining and/or automating cardiology workflows, and will be valuable in overloaded hospitals and health systems. But it’s also important to address the root of heart health care—ECG analysis will not only become more reliable, but also faster and more efficient, when we reduce signal noise across any device. Artificial Intelligence tools interpreting ECGs will be even more effective when those readings are clean and usable—and so will be the clinicians, whose expertise and judgment we continue to need in this field.
By powering a more innovative ecosystem, we can go beyond providing better cardiac care today and tomorrow, even with a dramatically rising need. We can bend the curve, with a more efficient, proactive approach to ECG monitoring that actually reduces the burden on providers, technicians, and families alike.