How Medtech Could Help Improve Patient Outcomes

An estimated 26 million patients suffer from heart failure worldwide, resulting in a global spending of $108 billion in heart failure patient care. Prevalence of heart failure in Canada is estimated at 600,000 cases, with 50,000 new patients diagnosed every year and $482 million related to heart failure hospital stays. Puzzle Medical Devices provides insight on how medical technology can help address this. What is the potential role of remote monitoring to alleviate the burden of disease for heart failure patients?

Heart failure spending is mostly driven by patient hospitalization and readmission. While tremendous improvements in heart failure therapy have been achieved in recent years, very little progress has been made in post-discharge mortality and readmission rates.

The implementation of promising remote monitoring programs could prevent recurrent hospitalizations through the early detection of acute decompensations. The acquisition of relevant and reliable data from patients at home is the biggest challenge being faced. The heterogenicity of data collection methods and parameters in different trials have led to diverging opinions on the relevance of remote patient monitoring. Overall, telemonitoring appears to be effective in reducing readmissions and mortality.

Are there any key gaps in heart health that can be addressed with innovative technologies?

Technological improvements in continuous vital sign monitoring such as wearable wireless epidermal sensors would facilitate patient monitoring and increase patient compliance to home monitoring programs.

Patients with end-stage heart failure who are refractory to medical therapy need mechanical hemodynamic support. Current heart pumps that attach to a patient’s heart to promote blood flow are extremely costly and require open-heart surgery, making them a seldom-used therapy. There is thus a tremendous unmet need for a minimally-invasive solution to chronically support end-stage heart failure.

Gabriel Georges Co-Founder, Puzzle Medical Devices

Stuart Kozlick CEO, Puzzle Medical Devices