9 Promising Cardio Technologies: Better Monitoring Solutions

Better Monitoring Solutions

St. Jude Medical's CardioMEMS HF System uses a wireless monitoring sensor implanted in the pulmonary artery (above) along with a portable electronic unit and pillow contaning an antenna to measure and transmit data about patients' pulmonary artery pressure.

Heart monitoring technologies are getting smaller, mobile, and infinitely more convenient than ever before.

AliveCor's Mobile ECG, for example, clips onto the back of a smartphone and to record, store, analyze, and transfer single-channel ECGs. The Zio XT Patch from iRhythm technologies provides continuous cardiac monitoring for arrhythmias for up to two weeks while enabling patients to continue their everyday lives--including showering. Medtronic's Seeq Mobile Cardiac Telemetry System can be used for longer term monitoring, when a Holter monitor couldn't provide a diagnosis. 

For heart failure patients, there's St. Jude Medical's CardioMEMS HF System, which uses an implantable sensor to monitor pulmonary artery pressure, which can indicate whether the condition is worsening. The implant sends data to a transmitter, which relays it to a secure website for physicians to review. Although the device has been criticized for being costly, a clinical trial showed it reduced heart failure hospitalizations by 40%. 

[Image courtesy of ST JUDE MEDICAL]

Learn how to design innovative structural heart therapies at the MD&M Minneapolis conference on September 21, 2016.