Big Data: The next big thing in Cardiac Monitoring? - CardioScan Singapore
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Big Data: The next big thing in Cardiac Monitoring?

December 11, 2020
New miniaturized waterproof devices shifted the conversation in cardiac monitoring a few years ago. No longer restricted by large, cumbersome devices and wired electrodes, patients were now fitted with lightweight wearable Holters – remaining comfortable, even showering and exercising, for longer periods of up to 14 days.
While industry quickly moved to embrace the new technology, one question has persisted: Now that they can wear Holters for longer, what’s the optimal testing period?
The next horizon in cardiac monitoring just might deliver the answer.

As cardiologists, reading data is nothing new. But what if that data were no longer just on an individual patient level – and instead, you could understand relationships between indications, patient demographics and the ideal study length across a broad range of clinical findings?

With real-world evidence sourced from various global locations in a range of public and private health systems, and from patients with differing socio-economic backgrounds, new clinical guidelines would deliver much-needed certainty to the sector.

Efficacy and application of multiday Holter devices would become less of a guessing game, and patients and health systems would both emerge as winners.

With better planned care, cardiology clinics stand to gain from the best use of increasingly strained resources, and patient test results would be delivered with greater accuracy, with treatments planned accordingly.

That’s ambition of big data, and it’s already underway.

Cardiac Monitoring Service, and its global parent company CardioScan, have begun working with leading public and private hospitals, health services, GP groups and cardiologists to provide this insight.

The group holds a unique position to begin such an undertaking as an independent device-agnostic cardiac monitoring service analyzing 600K+ heart studies in 10 countries each year.

Data insights driving improvements to patient care was the next obvious innovation in cardiac monitoring services, according to the Cardiac Monitoring Service CEO Rudy Watkins.

“We’ve spent 30 years as a tech-led company looking at how to deliver high quality information as quickly as possible into the hands of health professionals, who hold patients’ health in theirs,” he said.

“With devices and reporting platforms advancing the way they have in recent years, we now enter a new era where that information is at the next level.

“Much more data is available, and for the first time the industry can assess a huge range of variables within a single data set from within its own real-world clinical practices and settings.”

Initial data was already being shared with individual clinics, with insights into detection rates from a range of clinically significant findings by day, gender, age and study length, and more.

Clinics would also be provided with regional, national and global comparatives for a comprehensive look across health systems and various patient cohorts, as well as trend analysis as the data emerged.

To date, individual clinic reports had revealed up to 67% of patients with clinically significant findings detected after typical 24hr testing periods, with an average study length of just 4.1 days. Other clinics with longer test lengths continued to reveal initial findings as late as day 14.

While this alone may only confirm what industry has largely come to recognize – that longer testing makes sense for detection of intermittent paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias – where it gets interesting is in the detail.

CardioScan co-founder and Medical Director Assoc Prof Harry Mond said initial assessment of the data was promising.

“This kind of data can improve the health of patients and health systems alike,” he said.

“Working with colleagues across the pond, in other regions, I see a shared enthusiasm for the potential of this data to influence and improve our sector and change clinical pathways for patients.

“For all involved, what could be better? This is first-of-its-kind innovation with far ranging potential.”

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