Among heart failure patients discharged from hospitals, on average 23% are readmitted each year, according to a 2016 report in Progressive Cardiovascular Disease. Early detection of changing symptoms to prevent readmission is the Holy Grail for the costly problem. We’ve written about Insight Product Development‘s PhysIQ artificial intelligence-powered (AI) predictive algorithm. In 2016 we covered a collaboration between Biofourmis and Vital Connect using the latter’s BePatient wearable to monitor vital signs and biometrics analyzed by the latter’s Biovitals analysis engine to predict and hopefully head off readmission.
Biofourmis is back in the news with beatHF, an end-to-end post-acute cardiac care solution. beatHF has four components: clinical-grade wearable bio-sensors, a mobile app with caregiver alerts, the BioVitals analytics engine, and a web-based centralized platform that care teams can use to track the patient’s risk of health deterioration and hospital readmission. beatHF is device-agnostic but limited to FDA-cleared and CE-marked, clinically-validated continuous monitoring biosensors that transmit data via Bluetooth to the associated mobile device. The web platform also monitors patient medication and goal compliance. In addition, the app enables HIPAA-compliant secure messaging between caregivers and family members.
Wearable health and medical tech has come a long way in a relatively short time. Programs now use clinically-validated sensors and machine-learning AI to produce actionable health reports and insights. End-to-end integration and compliance with requirements such as HIPAA have become the entry-level table stakes for new products and services.
