Cambridge Heartwear design next-generation wearable heart monitor

Cambridge

Cambridge Heartwear has designed a cheap, next-generation wearable heart and cardiovascular function monitor that uses AI to diagnose heart rhythm and other respiratory issues in real time.

Based on the Cambridge Science Park, the company is eager to use its wireless monitor to enhance the detection of irregular and dangerous heart rhythms and lower the impact of stroke and stroke-related mortality and morbidity.

The monitor, called Heartsense, has multiple lead ECG, oxygen sensing, temperature and tracking device and can be comfortably worn by patients for early screening. The sensors are wrapped with robust waterproof casing, and the data produced is far more insightful than that from current single lead wearable devices, owning to the development team’s knowledge of clinical anatomy and electrophysiology to place leads for maximal signal output.

The data gathered is streamed in real time to the cloud, where adaptive AI algorithms can identify clinically relevant irregular and dangerous rhythms, similar to a physician. Heartsense also has multiple independent sensors, helping to produce more specific and sensitive data as compared to the current heart rate monitors in the market.

“Our aim was not to replace the cardiologist, but to give them diagnostic support in real time,” said Roberto Cipolla, Professor from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. The team has also ensured that the information from the AI algorithms output is the one usually used by a cardiologist.

Data accumulated over the years has pointed to the fact that 80% of people who have either died or been left with severe neurological deficits after a stroke, had an irregular heartbeat as the original cause. But, irregular heartbeat is still diagnosed only after the person has had a stroke.

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Currently, the heart rhythm is measured with the help of an electrocardiogram (ECG), however to use an ECG while the patient is going about their daily business a device called a Holter monitor is used. This monitor needs fixing 12 leads to the patient’s chest and carrying the bulky device around for 24 hours.

“If you’re wearing an ECG over a long period of time, you’re collecting a huge amount of data,” said Dr Rameen Shakur, cardiologist and clinical academic. “Finding an irregularity among all the normal rhythms can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I wanted to automate this process, helping the patient to get a diagnosis and start on treatment.”

This lead to the development of Heartsense, a device that has an accuracy level of more than 95%.