HeartSounds, Inc.
Chicago, IL
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chfPATCH
Overview
An emerging trend in the healthcare industry is the transition from intervention-based to preventative care. A major part of this trend is a movement towards home monitoring, especially for patients who, without continuous monitoring, require multiple hospital visits and have high readmission rates. Congestive heart failure (CHF) patient admissions exceeded 1.1 million in 2008; it is the leading cause of hospitalizations for patients over the age of 65. This is a 155% increase over the past 20 years. The total patient population with CHF is 5.3 million, with 550,000 new patients diagnosed every year. Direct costs exceed $30 billion and hospital costs represent $17.8 billion of this sum.
Scientific Background
Patients with CHF have to maintain a delicate balance of medications to manage their fluid status and pump function. Put simply, CHF is a deficit of the heart’s ability to pump blood through the body. When the pump doesn’t work, blood can back up, causing fluid to accumulate in the lungs. This fluid overload can result in organ dysfunctions, including pulmonary failure, liver failure, renal failure, etc. When the left heart pump is in failure, pulmonary circulation volume/pressure builds up and can cause fluid to leak into the lungs’ air spaces resulting in pulmonary failure.
HeartSounds Technology
The chfPATCH™ is a non-invasive metric of evaluating pulmonary arterial pressure, as it can monitor the pulmonary system directly, thus catching cardiovascular problems early and preventing expensive hospital readmissions.
Chicago, IL
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