Apple made a splash with its Series 4 smartwatch, which comes with an integrated electrocardiogram (ECG) that can read heart rhythms. But a pioneering mobile ECG and digital health firm, AliveCor, is touting three new studies for its own KardiaMobile heart monitoring platform.
AliveCor chief medical officer Jacqueline Shreibati spoke to Fortune prior to the studies’ release over the weekend. “We’ve shown through clinically validated trials that our platform can improve detection, workflow, and lower costs,” she said.
The trio of studies included monitoring patients who had heart palpitations or other concerning symptoms leading to a hospital visit; using the AliveCor KardiaMobile system, 56% of participants received a diagnosis of what was wrong with them within an average of 9.5 days. By comparison, old-fashioned standard of care led to just 10% of patients being diagnosed within 43 days.
The other pair of studies showed that: 1) Data collected from the mobile ECGs could be automatically incorporated into electronic health records (EHRs), which also could make it easier to reimburse hospitals and doctors for using the system; and 2) A new experimental device, the KardiaMobile Generation 2, can precisely measure something called the “QT interval.”
Shreibati touts the promise of that latter development to prevent medical catastrophes, as a prolonged QT interval on an ECG can indicate a serious underlying condition and raise the risk of sudden heart death. The Generation 2 device contains six leads that a user would put on specific parts of their body, compared to a more cumbersome 12-lead system used in a hospital. It is currently pending Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance.
