Our aim was not to replace the cardiologist, but to give them diagnostic support in real time.
- Roberto Cipolla
The company, Cambridge Heartwear, hopes to use its wireless monitor to improve the detection of irregular and dangerous heart rhythms and reduce the impact of stroke and stroke-related mortality and morbidity, which affects 120,000 people in the UK each year.A Cambridge start-up has developed a low-cost next-generation wearable heart and cardiovascular function monitor which uses AI to diagnose heart rhythm and respiratory problems in real time.
Professor Roberto Cipolla from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering met cardiologist and clinical academic Dr Rameen Shakur in 2015, a year after Roberto’s father had died of a stroke. Their ongoing research collaboration has now led to the formation of Cambridge Heartwear, a company based on the Cambridge Science Park.
The company’s device, called Heartsense, includes a multiple lead ECG, oxygen sensing, temperature and tracking device which can be comfortably worn by patients for early screening. Sensors are enclosed in a robust waterproof casing, and the data produced is far more sensitive than that from current single lead wearable devices, as the development team have used their knowledge of clinical anatomy and electrophysiology to place leads for maximal signal output.
This data is wirelessly streamed in real time to the cloud where adaptive AI algorithms are able to identify clinically relevant irregular and dangerous rhythms just as a physician would. The device incorporates multiple independent sensors, in order to produce more specific and sensitive data than current heart monitors can provide.
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Image:Heartsense monitor
Credit: Cambridge Heartwear
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge