Ambulatory Heart Failure Monitor
A start up company called Perminova is developing a necklace for clinical use that can track a number of vital signs including thoracic fluid levels which has been proved to be a viable indicator / predictor of congestive heart failure (CHF). This device can potentially be worn around the deck to collect the data in addition to traditional measurements such as weight and a stethoscope.
Experts say that you will gain weight as long as 4 days before an actual heart failure event. Further data suggests that 7 days before that you can detect a trend of fluid build-up and 18 days before that you can see changes in stroke volume and cardiac output.
The revolutionary device may seem ‘non medical grade’, but it has the potential to be as useful as an ambulatory glucose monitor for diabetes. This system, the CoVa is a necklace where patients are instructed to wear for only a few minutes each day. The device transmits heart rate, fluid content, respiration rate, Heart Rate variability, Stroke Volume, Cardiac Output and a single channel ECG.
The company, Perminova is partnering with remote patient monitoring analytic company Jointly Health. The company isn’t ruling out consumer use cases for the $300 device, but they intend to start out going through hospitals where preventing cardiac events and reducing re-admission costs is paramount. Perminova is hoping for a 510k FDA approval sometime in 2014.
