2 minute read
AliveCor: Detecting atrial fibrillation to prevent strokes
Next Article
Detecting atrial fibrillation to prevent strokes
KardiaMobile, from MediWales member AliveCor, has been used by Kent, Surrey & Sussex Academic Health Science Network in a project estimated to avoid over 60 strokes annually.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia and a leading cause of stroke across the world. In the UK, AF affects nearly 1 million people. Kent Surrey Sussex Academic Health Science Network (KSS AHSN) has collaborated with the NHS, partner organisations and industry to invest in the many elements of a project to detect and protect patients with AF.
The KSS AHSN Alliance for AF project aims to improve the detection of AF and optimise the use of anticoagulants through the implementation of tools and resources, including AliveCor’s KardiaMobile, that will support clinical teams to reduce the number of people dying or becoming disabled by AF-related stroke. National targets were set by NHS England in April 2018 to increase AF prevalence to 85 per cent and increase anticoagulation rates to 84 per cent by March 2020. This was successfully achieved by KSS AHSN Alliance for AF in the first year, with 87.3 per cent AF Prevalence and 84.6 per cent anticoagulation rates (QOF 2018/19 data).
The Alliance continues to support this even further and, as a result, the project has proven that these efforts and methods could save not only lives, but also a significant amount of money for the UK economy where it’s estimated that healthcare cost related to cardiovascular disease is £19 billion per year.
KSS AHSN distributed 560 KardiaMobile personal ECG devices to primary and secondary care settings to be used for AF detection. KardiaMobile is a Lead I, CE-marked, medical-grade personal ECG that can detect AF in just 30 seconds. ECGs are recorded directly onto the user’s smartphone, where they see an instant analysis that can be shared with their healthcare provider remotely. Activity data from each participant’s KardiaMobile was tracked every month from April 2018 to June 2020.
Of the 14,853 ECG traces taken with KardiaMobile, there were 1,525 possible AF detections, and potentially more than 60 strokes were saved. This has an associated health and social care cost saving of £2.5 million in addition to saving numerous patients and their families from the devastating experience of a stroke.
The KSS AHSN Alliance for AF project has made a significant difference to its population in primary care settings across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. However, there is more to do in order to help share their learnings and scale the project across the region and the UK. KardiaMobile’s affordable price point (£99 per device) and medicalgrade AI technology prove to have a positive impact on patient outcomes and healthcare savings. Expanding the use of KardiaMobile in other NHS pathways across the UK could make significant improvements in the nationwide efforts to fight cardiovascular disease.
