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Projects story | Objava

A wearable device to detect cardiac arrhythmias

The Slovenian company Saving, with the help of a Digital Innovation Hub, has created a light, affordable and non-intrusive wearable device to improve monitoring of patients that suffer from cardiac diseases.

Man wearing the device of two sensors and bluetooth connection to a smartphone

Saving/Tetracom

Savvy ECG sensor

The main causes of death among the elderly population are cardiovascular disease and cancer. For example, atrial fibrillation (AF) is a cardiac arrhythmia that affects more than four million people in the European Union and about 100 million worldwide.

In order to detect and treat this and other arrhythmias, long-term screening of patients is recommended and mobile and wearable solutions are normally the best approach for it. However, existing devices are still costly and uncomfortable for patients' mobility.

To address these challenges, the Slovenian company Saving partnered with the medical centre SIMED and the Digital Innovation Hub Jožef Stefan Institute in the European project Tetracom. Together, they developed a wireless body sensor that measures vital physiological and environmental parameters, with just small two electrodes at the distance of 8 cm.

The system has a long autonomy of up to seven days and it counts with a low power Bluetooth connection to a smartphone, and an app to interpret the collected measurements. Because of its simple use, non-intrusive design and acceptable price, the system can be used as a personal medical device or to support solutions medical personal in hospitals, health clinics, and homes for the elderly.

Impact

  • The Slovenian company Saving has already started selling this product, which has been successfully implemented in the public and private health care sector such as cardio centres and hospitals. The company expects 100,000 new customers worldwide by 2020, resulting in sales worth €3,350,000 and up to 55% return of investment . 
  • The low cost of the Savvy ECG sensor allows for more monitoring ultimately saving lives without increasing health care cost. Patients can have more flexibility whilst being monitored and informed in real time about their heart activity.

For more information about this success story, visit Tetracom's website