Successfully Treating
Heart Failure
cont.
HeartMApp, an Android-based application that gives heart failure
patients the ability to do at home what they’d normally have to do
at the doctor’s office. Taking users through a series of modules, the
self-care application provides patients with a number of tools that
allows for better day-to-day management and monitoring of their
condition.
Through the use of smart sensor technology in the form of a strap
around the patient’s chest, HeartMApp monitors patients’ vital
signs on a daily basis and sends a comprehensive report to their
doctor. The app also utilizes sensors to verify how well the patient
is performing prescribed medical assessments, including deepbreathing and walking exercises. Based on the data gathered,
the application then provides daily feedback to both the patient
and the doctor, reducing the need for frequent hospital visits and
appointments.
“The main idea of the application is two-fold.
We want to provide a self-care tool to help
heart failure patients improve their condition,
while also helping the clinical team monitor
patients remotely and promptly intervene when
necessary,” said Federico Giovannetti, coresearcher on The Corridor-funded project and
software engineer at Draper Laboratory. “With
technology like this, hospitals can limit the costs
of re-admissions while effectively caring for the
patient through constant monitoring.”
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florida.HIGH.TECH 2015
Thanks to funding from the Florida High
Tech Corridor Council’s Matching Grants
Research Program, the app is now 90
percent complete and is nearly ready
to enter into the clinical trials phase.
Without such funding, Labrador says, the
project would have moved much slower.
“The additional funding has been critical
to the success of this project,” said
Labrador. “It’s allowed us to make more
progress in a shorter period of time and
reach new milestones quicker. Without
it, we wouldn’t have advanced as much
as we have so far, so we’re very grateful
for it.”