New app enables rapid screening for heart disease
Eko announced it has launched an app that enables rapid screening for heart disease within 15 seconds of initiating a doctor visit.
Eko App will enable doctors to have the company’s FDA-cleared artificial intelligence algorithms readily accessible, according to a press release from the company.
“The most likely use of this technology is the enablement of clinicians on the frontline: MDs, advanced practice providers and RNs working in general practice/internal medicine to catch signs of cardiovascular disease earlier and more effectively during routine patient encounters like an annual physical exam,” Connor Landgraf, CEO and co-founder of Eko, told Healio. “Clinicians today are overburdened with a large patient and administrative workload which often limits the time they can spend assessing a patient's cardiac health during physical encounters. Therefore, opportunities for catching heart disease early can slip through if, for example, patient history or lack of complaints give no reason to suspect, or certain signs aren’t appreciated or overlooked during physical exams. This can also enable more appropriate referring of patients to cardiology where the referring physicians can not only confidently pick up murmurs and atrial fibrillation, but also share the findings as recorded audio and visualizations with cardiologists before the patient’s appointment.”
Importantly, Landgraf said, “automated detection services happen automatically in the background during regular auscultation. This means the clinician doesn’t need to stray away from or change any activity they would have already had in their workflow if they already auscultate patients as a normal practice.”
There is also potential for use in areas without many, or any, cardiologists, Landgraf said.
“The biggest potential impact to cardiology is the opportunity to treat more patients with undiagnosed heart conditions earlier in the disease progression, when intervention can have more favorable outcomes,” he said in the interview. “We know that in some rural and developing areas, access to cardiologists can be limited or even unavailable for the local population. The app helps clinicians who practice in these communities better detect heart disease even without the extensive training of a cardiologist. This can help them confidently decide when they should refer a patient to cardiology for further workup or treatment. Overall, murmur and AF detection capabilities — comparable to cardiologists — in the hands and pockets of every frontline clinician should lead to more heart disease caught earlier and brought to cardiology sooner for more timely treatment and effective management.”
For more information:
Connor Landgraf can be reached at 1212 Broadway, Suite 100, Oakland, CA 94612.
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