REAFEL: Reaching the Frail Elderly Patient for optimizing diagnosis of atrial fibrillation

Background

Chronic heart related diseases are a major public health issue (prevalence 2% and 8% for >65 yrs) and is the leading cause of hospitalization for people >65 yrs. Compared to hospital-based management of patients, home monitoring embraces a patient-centric self-management alternative system. Early detection of cardiac rhythm disorders allows for timely intervention and prevention of serious conditions such as stroke and repeated falls.

Objectives

The REAFEL project has two aims. 

• To research, design, and implement a telemedicine sensor platform that enables for remote monitoring of patients, providing automated alerts and reminders to the patient and clinicians. The goal is to provide a home monitoring solution that is applicable for any general practitioner (GP) and Cardiology department for remote live monitoring and review of health data for optimizing the diagnosing and treatment of a potential critical heart rhythm disorders.
• To reorganize and improve the diagnostic process of heart rhythm disorders in frail elderly patients by using this telemedicine setup. Timely diagnosis may prevent repeated falls with adequate pacemaker treatment and medical adjustments. Likewise, strokes related to atrial fibrillation can be prevented with adequate anticoagulation, where the latter amount to 81 m DKK in the Capital Region of Denmark alone. 

In order to accomplish its goals, this project will make use of a new heart rhythm monitor, the C3, developed by the Danish company Cortrium Aps. The C3 will also cardiologists at Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital to monitor patients’ heart rhythm online, as opposed to the in-hospital procedures used today. This will allow cardiologists to effectively cooperate with general practitioners to quickly start treatments tailored to the individual patient.

This project will also help improve how the C3 handles diagnostic data and further develop the data-sharing platforms needed for the C3 to be used in general clinical settings outside this project. This development will be overseen by CACHET, involving researchers from the Technical University of Denmark. Research will focus on developing advanced algorithms able to automatically detect heart rhythm disturbances using C3 data, and on developing a system for quickly notifying patients and physicians of early signs of heart rhythm disturbances. This development will allow better organization and communication between heart physicians, general practitioners and patients, leading to earlier diagnoses and more efficient treatment.

References

• See the project description at the IDF homepage (in Danish)