Amsterdam UMC to use e-health tool to remotely monitor heart patients at home

Tool will improve care for both patients and doctors by facilitating blood pressure and ECG measurements at home

2024-02-15

(Press-News.org) From today, patients and doctors at Amsterdam UMC's Heart Centre can make use of the app HartWacht (HeartGuard, in English) to supplement their care. Through the use of a small measurement instrument, around the size of a cereal bar, and a mobile app, patients can now have their blood pressure and arrythmias monitored at home. This means that patients need to visit their cardiologist less frequently. For doctors, this means they have more precise measurements and can act quicker where necessary. A ''win-win'' in the eyes of Michiel Winter, cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC and leader of this project.

"HartWacht was developed in 2016 by the Cardiology Centres Netherlands (CCN), an Amsterdam UMC partner. There, we are already using it to track data from more than 3,000 patients. Since we started the e-health program, we have seen a decrease in the number of ambulance-calls for these patients. And because we can see what is going on with the patient from a distance, we can immediately reassure and advise or intervene where necessary. Analyses show that there are fewer visits to the emergency department, and that patients who use HartWacht come to the outpatient clinic less often and need fewer nursing days," adds Winter, who in addition to his work at Amsterdam UMC is also chairman of CCN's Board of Directors.

The HartWacht programme is suitable for patients who have high blood pressure, heart arrythmias or heart failure. For these patients, the use of this app will mean fewer trips to the hospital, both in ambulances and for check-ups. For the cardiologist, the app will allow them to work smarter, "It relieves us of our worries by collecting all of non-abnormal health measurements, so that we can focus on patients with abnormal measurements. It is necessary to filter the enormous amount of data from telemonitoring so that we can manage the workload," says Jasper Selder, cardiologist at Amsterdam UMC and co-leader of this project.

Amsterdam UMC is the first academic hospital to use this program that makes it possible, among other things, to make an ECG remotely. The current HartWacht program is suitable for patients with high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmias or heart failure. The app enables cardiologists to work smarter. "It relieves us of our worries because all non-abnormal health measurements are filtered out. That's often the bulk of all measurements," says Jasper Selder, cardiologist and biomedical engineer at Amsterdam UMC and co-leader of this project:

All patient data is analysed by a central team before any abnormal readings are shared with the patient's cardiologist. "As a cardiologist, instead of having to look at dozens of heart rhythm and blood pressure measurements during the – often busy – outpatient check-ups, we now receive an immediate notification if one of those measurements falls outside the expected range. So, there is more time for the cardiologist to focus on patient care. Deviations also come to light more quickly and not only during checks. Based on the abnormality detected, we can immediately determine whether action is needed, such as adjusting medication or an extra check-up," Selder adds.

Winter's experience is that home monitoring also offers peace of mind for patients who often have to deal with lifelong heart disease: "It is very reassuring for patients, they immediately receive feedback in the app after a measurement. In addition, it is a way to keep healthcare accessible and affordable. And because care becomes independent of time and place, we as doctors can help a patient much better and in a timelier manner. This leads to a high level of satisfaction of the participating patients and less unnecessary care," he adds.

It is planned that programmes for diabetes and cardiovascular risk management will be added to the e-health programme this year. HartWacht is reimbursed by all Dutch health insurers.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Proteins guide electrons to the right place

2024-02-15

Cells need energy to function. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg can now explain how energy is guided in the cell by small atomic movements to reach its destination in the protein. Imitating these structural changes of the proteins could lead to more efficient solar cells in the future. The sun’s rays are the basis for all the energy that creates life on Earth. Photosynthesis in plants is a prime example, where solar energy is needed for the plant to grow. Special proteins absorb the sun’s rays, and the energy is transported as electrons inside the protein, in a process called charge transfer. In a new study, researchers show how ...

Language and culture may influence how our brain processes emotional faces

2024-02-15

Body language and the understanding thereof is a crucial part of communication. It is often assumed that humans can innately recognize other’s emotions, but there is growing evidence that the ability to decipher these emotions is not instinctive but shaped by people’s culturally shared understanding of emotions. A team of scientists in the US decided to investigate how cultural upbringing and access to emotion category words, which categorize and facilitate access to a complex set of emotional ideas, experiences, and responses ...

New peer-reviewed EWG study finds little-known toxic crop chemical in four out of five people tested

2024-02-15

WASHINGTON – A new Environmental Working Group peer-reviewed study has found chlormequat, a little-known pesticide, in four out of five people tested. Because the chemical is linked to reproductive and developmental problems in animal studies, the findings suggest the potential for similar harm to humans. EWG’s research, published February 15 in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, tested the urine of 96 people for the presence of chlormequat, finding it in 77 of them. EWG summarized the findings in an article published on its website. “EWG’s new study on chlormequat ...

Antidepressant use lower in moms who have support from grandparents

2024-02-15

Mothers are less likely to take antidepressants if their own parents and parents-in-law are healthy and live close by– a new study finds. On the flip side of the coin, antidepressant use was highest in mothers whose parents and parents-in-law were elderly, in poor health, and lived far away – possibly due to the stress caused by needing to care for and support older grandparents instead of receiving help from them. The findings of this new longitudinal study which tracked 488,000 mothers of young children between 2000-2014 are published today in the peer-reviewed journal Population Studies. “Previous studies have consistently shown that younger grandparents in good ...

Experts call for innovative strategies to address global blood crisis, form blood D.E.S.E.R.T coalition

2024-02-15

KEY TAKEAWAYS The majority of the world’s people live in what are known as “blood deserts,” areas in which the clinical need for blood components cannot be met in at least 75% of cases. A global coalition of experts led by researchers from the Brigham identified urgent steps that can be taken by health systems to improve access to blood until longer term strategies are established Billions of people live in parts of the world that are so remote from the nearest hospital facility with a functioning blood bank that they are termed “blood deserts.” Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the ...

Walking, jogging, yoga and strength training ease depression

2024-02-15

Walking or jogging, yoga, and strength training seem to be the most effective exercises to ease depression, either alone or alongside established treatments such as psychotherapy and drugs, suggests an evidence review published by The BMJ today. Even low intensity activities such as walking or yoga are beneficial, but the results suggest that the more vigorous the activity, the greater the benefits are likely to be. The authors stress that confidence in many of the findings remains low ...

Doctors quitting over stress and cost of finding suitable childcare

2024-02-15

Securing suitable childcare for the irregular and long working hours demanded by a medical career is a crippling financial burden and a draining source of stress for doctor parents, reveals an exclusive snapshot survey by The BMJ today. Some doctors have resigned or are considering resigning, others have changed specialities in the hope that it gives them more flexibility, and yet more altered their plans to have children as a result, reports health journalist Erin Dean. The BMJ Childcare Survey ran on bmj.com from 16 to 30 November ...

Companies are adopting feminist narratives to influence women’s health

2024-02-15

Feminist health narratives are being co-opted by commercial interests to market new technologies, tests, and treatments that are not backed by evidence, argue researchers in The BMJ today. Dr Tessa Copp at The University of Sydney and colleagues say such marketing behaviour risks harming women through inappropriate medicalisation, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment. They call for greater wariness of simplistic health messages that any knowledge is power, and urge health professionals and governments ...

The BMJ reveals huge delays in dealing with complaints against UK drug companies

2024-02-15

Processing times for complaints against drug companies suspected of having breached their industry code of practice have more than tripled in a nearly two-decade period, an investigation by The BMJ has found. Data analysis by Shai Mulinari at Lund University and Piotr Ozieranski at the University of Bath show that the average processing time of a complaint more than tripled between 2004-2021, from less than three months to more than 8.5 months. Numerous complaints have taken more than a year ...

School uniform policies linked to students getting less exercise, study finds

2024-02-15

School uniform policies could be restricting young people from being active, particularly primary school-aged girls, new research suggests. The University of Cambridge study used data about the physical activity participation of more than a million five-to-17-year-olds internationally. It found that in countries where a majority of schools require students to wear uniforms fewer young people tend to meet the 60 minutes of physical activity per day recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Regardless of uniform policies, across most countries fewer girls than boys reach those ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Preschool education: A key to supporting allophone children

CNIC scientists discover a key mechanism in fat cells that protects the body against energetic excess

Chemical replacement of TNT explosive more harmful to plants, study shows

Scientists reveal possible role of iron sulfides in creating life in terrestrial hot springs

Hormone therapy affects the metabolic health of transgender individuals

Survey of 12 European countries reveals the best and worst for smoke-free homes

First new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years

Certain HRT tablets linked to increased heart disease and blood clot risk

Talking therapy and rehabilitation probably improve long covid symptoms, but effects modest

Ban medical research with links to the fossil fuel industry, say experts

Different menopausal hormone treatments pose different risks

Novel CAR T cell therapy obe-cel demonstrates high response rates in adult patients with advanced B-cell ALL

Clinical trial at Emory University reveals twice-yearly injection to be 96% effective in HIV prevention

Discovering the traits of extinct birds

Are health care disparities tied to worse outcomes for kids with MS?

For those with CTE, family history of mental illness tied to aggression in middle age

The sound of traffic increases stress and anxiety

Global food yields have grown steadily during last six decades

Children who grow up with pets or on farms may develop allergies at lower rates because their gut microbiome develops with more anaerobic commensals, per fecal analysis in small cohort study

North American Early Paleoindians almost 13,000 years ago used the bones of canids, felids, and hares to create needles in modern-day Wyoming, potentially to make the tailored fur garments which enabl

Higher levels of democracy and lower levels of corruption are associated with more doctors, independent of healthcare spending, per cross-sectional study of 134 countries