The cardiac world has transformed a lot over the past decade with new treatments and improved survival rates. With digital technology bringing more developments to the field, patients can receive care closer to home and doctors can detect cardiovascular disease earlier.
Here are a few of the ways in which digital technology is changing the face of cardiac care.
Saving Lives With Relevant Data
There are approximately 17 million deaths a year from heart disease in ages under 70. The digital era holds the key to preventing deaths by understanding data in a strategic way. This includes having cardiac registries that record real-time data.
With data from performance outcome metrics and analytics, medical professionals and researchers can understand more about preventing deaths from heart disease.
For example, the MINAP data collection from the Royal College of Physicians measures real-time data in heart attacks and indicates how to reduce deaths.
Personalized Data and Targeted Treatments
The era of genomics promises a new world of targeted treatments and early disease detection. Genomics is the study of DNA codes within genomes.
Cardiac genomics hasn’t moved as fast as other disease areas, but recent work has identified people with a genetic predisposition to heart disease, and how to prevent problems from occurring in the future.
A specific project run by the British Heart Foundation aims to use genomics to identify predisposing factors and triggers to disease such as cardiomyopathy.
Monitoring and Preventing Disease
Wearable devices and apps bring huge potential to cardiac care. They can monitor heart rates, blood pressure, and rhythm disturbances, and have been shown to cut waste in patient pathways.
Devices can enable patients to manage their health and reduce the risk of heart disease through regular exercise and eating a healthy diet. Technology can also aid in preventing diabetes, a leading factor to heart disease.
Apps like Fixing Dad aim to promote health and prevent illnesses like diabetes. Many apps operate through a smartphone or wearable device, making them easy for the public to use.
Using Telemedicine
Some forms of remote monitoring enable people with chronic disease to stay in their own homes instead of the hospital.
Telemedicine, for example, has reduced hospital admissions by 40 percent. This approach has the ability to reduce the cost of care and enable health workers to use a more proactive approach in managing people with heart failure.
Telemedicine is also used to monitor arrhythmias, allowing people to go about their daily activities instead of sitting at a hospital. This gives a more realistic idea of triggers throughout the day.
Devices like Alivecor are simple to use and can record symptomatic change, saving time with investigations.
Dealing With Emergencies
Digital technology is also transforming care in cardiac emergencies. There are mobile phone apps that instruct the public how to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation in an emergency, potentially saving lives.
Digital technology is changing the face of cardiovascular care and can transform the world of the patient as well as the working environment of the medical professional.
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