Tag Archives: Wearables

Medicine, PODCASTS, Women's Health

BMJ Podcast: Diagnosis & Management Of Heart Failure – Dr. Carolyn Lam

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In this episode of the Heart podcast, Digital Media Editor, Dr James Rudd, is joined by Professor Carolyn Lam, a world expert in heart failure from the University of Singapore and the National Heart Centre, also in Singapore.

They discuss updates in the diagnosis and management of heart failure, including wearables, biomarkers, the 4 pillars of therapy, and how and why there has historically been an under-representation of women in heart failure trials. This episode is sponsored by an educational grant from the Boehringer Ingelheim-Lilly Alliance. The sponsor has no influence over podcast content, the selection of speakers or any associated educational material.

Professor Carolyn Lam is a Senior Consultant from the Department of Cardiology and Director of Women’s Heart Health at the National Heart Centre Singapore, having pioneered the first Women’s Heart Clinic in Singapore.  Academically, she serves as a tenured Full Professor at the Duke-National University of Singapore, having also graduated from the Standford Executive Programme in 2015, and obtained a PhD at the University Medical Centre Groningen, the Netherlands in 2016. In the field of MedTech, Prof Lam is co-founder of Us2.ai, an award-wining startup dedicated to the automation of the fight against heart disease by applying artificial intelligence to echocardiography (ultrasound of the heart). 

Prof Lam is a world-renowned specialist in heart failure (particularly heart failure with preserved ejection fraction [HFpEF]). Her work in the PARAGON-HF and EMPEROR-Preserved trials led to the first FDA-approved treatment for HFpEF and the first robustly positive clinical outcomes trial in HFpEF to-date, respectively. She leads several multinational global and regional clinical trials, and has received numerous prestigious awards and global recognition for her work. Her recent appointments on the 2021 European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Guidelines Task Force, and as International Honorary Fellow of the Heart Failure Society of America 2021, attest to her contributions in both cardiology and research fields. 

Prof Lam is a proud recipient of the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Senior Investigator Clinician Scientist Award in 2020, and served as the Founding Programme Lead of A*STaR’s Asian neTwork for Translational Research and Cardiovascular Trials (ATTRaCT) and Principal Investigator of ASIAN-HF (a multinational study across 11 Asian countries). In 2019, She initiated the Asian Diabetes Outcomes Prevention Trial (ADOPT), an ongoing trial involving 5 countries and aimed at reducing the cardiovascular adverse outcomes of diabetes in Asian patients.

She has published with over 350 articles in major high impact journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Lancet, Circulation, and European Heart Journal; and has been recognised as a World Expert by Expertscape’s PubMed-based algorithms (top 0.1% of scholars writing about Heart Failure over the past 10 years; Heart Failure: Worldwide – Expertscape.com). Besides being an Associate Editor for Circulation (top Cardiology Journal) and European Journal of Heart Failure, she is also the lead author of the chapter on HFpEF for Braunwald’s Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 12th Edition – the award-winning textbook trusted by generations of cardiologists for the latest, most reliable guidance in the field.

Medicine, Men's Health, Technology, Women's Health

DIGITAL HEALTH: THE FUTURE OF WEARABLE DEVICES

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Currently, smartwatches provide information such as heart rate, sleep time and activity patterns. In the future, this could be augmented with new classes of wearable devices that monitor, for example, concentrations of cortisol for tracking stress (using electronic epidermal tattoos), biomarkers of inflammation and levels of blood O2 (microneedle patches), skin temperature (electronic textiles), blood pressure (smart rings), concentration of ions (wristbands), intraocular pressure (smart contact lenses), the presence of airborne pathogens and breathing anomalies (face masks), and the concentration of therapeutic drugs (on-teeth sensors)2,10,12,13,14,15,16. Such emerging low-cost wearable sensing technologies, monitoring both physical parameters and biochemical markers, could be used to identify symptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases in future pandemics. The devices could also be used to remotely monitor the recovery of individuals undergoing treatment or self-isolating at home.

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Medicine, Men's Health, Technology, TELEMEDICINE, Women's Health

Telecardiology: Wearable Devices Monitoring Heart Patients Using AI (Harvard)

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In the future, remote monitoring of health data using wireless–enabled devices that measure a person’s weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, pulse, and heart rhythm could further advance telehealth’s promise.

“I imagine a world where we are continuously monitoring key health factors and using artificial intelligence to monitor those signals,” says Dr. Schwamm. 

From a patient’s perspective, virtual visits save a lot of time. You don’t need to take time off work or other commitments to drive, park, and sit in a waiting room before your visit. And even though you’re not in the same room, you may actually get more direct eye contact with your physician, thanks to the face-to-face nature of video calling.

Another advantage: you may be able to have another person — such as a family member who lives across town or across the country — join the video call. That could be especially helpful if you’re facing an upcoming procedure or discussing a serious health concern. Just as with in-person visits, it’s nice to have another person listening, asking questions, and taking notes.

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Technology, TELEMEDICINE

HEALTHCARE: TOP DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY TRENDS (2020)

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From MD+DI (June 17, 2020):

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Remote-care solutions like telehealth and wearable devices are included in the new approach that healthcare professionals will be embracing as they position their businesses to best serve patients in a COVID-19 world. Digital healthcare product solutions address critical issues for the remote delivery of care or the “hospital at home” that have been resonating long before we began looking at all our interactions through a social-distancing lens.

Wearables and On-Body Devices – Real-time data collection and communication are critical to digital health initiatives. More than half of survey respondents—52%—said they are currently developing or planning to develop wearable or on-body devices as part of their strategy. Another 33% said the same for patient-monitoring solutions.

Miniaturization, flexible circuitry, and biometric capturing sensors are leading to exciting new devices that will help patients in recovery or with chronic issues. The data communicated from these solutions will equip healthcare providers and patients with the data that can transform healthcare.

Seamless technology integration – A range of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, cloud-based applications, and a growing roster of IoMT devices. 

More than nine in 10 healthcare solution providers agree that the collection and purposing of data should be standardized to enable interoperability between devices and within product platforms, according to the survey.

2020 Digital Health Technology Trends survey

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Dr. C "Comments", Prevention, Resources, TELEMEDICINE

INFOGRAPHICS: “DIGITAL HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES IMPROVING PATIENT CARE”

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COMMENTARY

The technology of telemedicine will predictably and steadily get better.
Medical assistants, mostly human at present, are commonplace, notably in specialty offices, and machines using improving voice-to-text transcription are getting better.

Wearable devices are proliferating and hopefully coming down in cost, and platform technology is improving though still glitchy.

Patients generally accept Telemedicine. They like the saving of travel time and infection exposure.

Doctors may drag their feet because the increased effort and legal exposure is not compensated by increase in payment. On the contrary, pre-Covid compensation was LESS for a televisit. Continuing Parity would help.

The politicians at the state level should eventually make licenses valid across state borders.

The big wild card is the Legal Profession. Unless they develop restraint( and litigious patients reform), there could be a feeding Frenzy, which would delay implementation of a very good idea.

Eventually telemedicine deserves to be 50% or more of medical practice.

—Dr. C.