Author: IgniteTeam

The economic case for the AliveCor Kardia Mobile ECG

The AliveCor Kardia Mobile ECG has swiftly become one of our more popular products. If you’ve not yet heard of it, the Kardia Mobile ECG is an incredibly handy and portable ECG monitor that is held in the patient’s hand. The only thing it needs is a smart phone with the Kardia app installed.

Using a single channel ECG monitor with automatic ECG evaluation, it can detect possible Atrial Fibrillation (AF). The smartphone application shows a real-time visualisation of the ECG recording, as well as historical data for comparisons.

The device has been popular for the home market, for those needing to track either their own or a relative’s health. However, there’s a serious economic case for the Kardia Mobile ECG to become a standard for surgeries. If surgeries have access to the mobile ECG, to be able to supply to patients, a lot of time can be saved.

Let’s first look at the current representative pathway for patients presenting with palpitations according to a case study from NHS Coastal West Sussex.

Patient present with palpitations > Sees GP > GP refers > Hospital receives letter > Consultant receives letter > Outpatients > 24hr ECG > Negative Test > Has 7-day ECG > Outpatients and decision > Has 7-day ECG > Outpatient and decision > Consider Implantable Loop Recorder (ILR) > Put on waiting list > Lost to system > Sees GP > GP writes letter > Hospital receives letter.

That’s quite a list, 18 steps in all. Goodness knows the time, resource and cost this entire process could be to the system.

Here’s a potential pathway with the Kardia:

Patient presents with palpitations > Sees GP > GP supplies Kardia Mobile ECG > Symptomatic trace > Sees GP > Advice and management.

Already, you can see where the Kardia Mobile ECG being part of your surgery’s strategy could save valuable time and money. The aforementioned case study does give some idea for the potential savings to be made.

The previously quoted pathway is costed up at £1305, nearly £6000 if the ILR (implantable loop recorder) is included. Whilst all of these steps and the costs suggested might not always be the case, it shows that it could be an expensive process. Taking into consideration that an estimated 2,000,000 people in the UK have Atrial Fibrillation, we simply must find a more sensible solution, the AliveCor Kardia Mobile ECG.

The same pathway, with the inclusion of the Kardia Mobile ECG being supplied comes in at just £172.50. That’s an incredible saving.

Across the country, that’s a potential saving of £2,265,000,000 (without ILR, £11,377,000,000 with ILR in every case) which is a staggering figure. This is no longer about whether surgeries ­should be supplying the Kardia Mobile ECG, it’s a case of when they start.

That time is now.

 

SysToe – Putting your Patient’s Feet First

In this digital day and age, you might not be surprised to hear me ask if you’ve had your digital pressure taken recently? Of course, I mean your toe and finger pressure – simple to forget but important not to ignore.

Today, we’re specifically talking about Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD), which is when the arteries to the legs get either completely or partially blocked, most commonly due to atherosclerotic (cholesterol) plaques. These blockages lead to intermittent claudication, a leg pain in the patient’s calf as a result of walking, which eases at rest. Many might consider this calf pain as fairly normal, and ignore the symptoms, especially if they felt normal again when resting. If Peripheral Arterial Disease is left unchecked, it may become more advanced, eventually leading to pain at rest, leg ulcers and even gangrene.

PAD has previously been diagnosed with a physical examination by a GP, who would compare blood pressure in the patient’s arm and ankle. A difference in the two readings would be a possible indication of PAD. Whilst this technique has been in use for over half a century, it comes with problems; most notably the need for operator training and that the patient can experience some discomfort throughout the process. We now have the ‘SysToe’ machine, meaning PAD can be quite easily diagnosed with a simple reading of the Toe Brachial Index (TBI). This reading can also be used following diagnosis to track disease and help aid recovery.

So why is the SysToe system so great?

The SysToe system is a fully automated clinically validated patented device. It is not operator dependent so gives reliable and repeatable measurements. This not only saves on NHS time and money, but also helps to create more accurate diagnosis than ever before. It’s the full automation which make the SysToe so great; once the cuff and the sensor are placed on the toe (an easy job for anyone to do), just press the START button for cuff inflation and deflation to take place at the data value displayed within three minutes.

For the quick assessment of lower limb arterial diseases, the SysToe is a must have piece of equipment. Fast measurements, accurate and reproducible results, time & money saving; can your surgery or clinic not afford to have one?

Know Your Numbers Week 12 – 18th September

The 12th to the 18th of September this year sees the return of ‘Know your Numbers’, a Blood Pressure UK run awareness campaign to promote blood pressure testing. KYN was first launched in 2001 and has since gone on to encourage around 1.5 million people to have their blood pressure checked. The idea is that we should all know our blood pressures like we know our height and weight.

For me, that’s a great analogy. If you weigh yourself and realise you’ve put on a few pounds, then you might start eating a bit differently or moving a bit more. The difference, however, is that with weight gain you have a visual clue before anything else. Blood Pressure is only known once tested, but knowing those figures and tracking the changes could one day save your life.

As part of KYN week, ‘Pressure Stations’ will be setup all around the country at the more obvious venues such as GP surgeries, hospitals and health clubs, but also shopping centres and supermarkets, so it should be easy for everyone to get checked out.

At P.M.S (Instruments), we think this is a great initiative, and hope it does it a lot of good, but we can’t forget that we’re here to supply both surgeries with the equipment they need and also those at home or in the private healthcare sector. With that in mind, we’d like to share some news on two great new products.

The A&D TM-2657P is the follow up to the TM-2655P, popular with GPs as it saves consultation time. This is particularly useful at this time of year when it comes to screening elderly patients who are having the flu jab in large volumes. My favourite new feature of this machine is the added value of the Irregular Heartbeat Indicator (IHB) function – a highly useful new feature. Check out the write up below for some more specs!

The other great new Blood Pressure Monitor is the A&D UA-767-S, which is the latest in a generation of models of the same name. This is a really portable BPM, which makes it perfect for either home use, those who are regularly out and about on home visits or just in the surgery. Another brilliant bit of kit from A&D, again, check below for full specs!

Here at PMS, we’re proud to have a 40 year plus history of supplying technology you can trust. We’ve been the main A&D UK distributer since 1990 (A&D have been making Blood Pressure Monitors since 1979) so we can guarantee the best equipment and a genuine pedigree. For is, this is the perfect marriage to support the upcoming Know Your Numbers week.

 

A&D TM-2657PA&D TM-2657P – For Waiting Room Use

Key features

  • User-friendly with small footprint
  • BHS AA grade clinical validation 
  • Simple one-touch fully automatic measurement
  • Accurate and reliable Torque Controlled Belt drive Method
  • Antibacterial inner arm cuff cover
  • Easy load paper tray
  • Reliable high speed printer with easy paper replacement
  • Irregular Heart Beat (IHB) indicated on printout

 

The TM-2657P is the latest waiting room blood pressure monitor from A&D Medical. It builds on the speed, reliability and accuracy of the previous TM-2655P, which it replaces, but now features a new ergonomic, modern, compact design. The new integrated armrest helps ensure the patient’s arm is comfortable and in the correct position during a measurement.

A new antibacterial arm cuff cover is also now fitted as standard with the TM-2657P. Designed and engineered in Japan, the new TM-2657P has a faster printout speed and offers added optional connectivity features including Bluetooth.

The “Torque Controlled Belt drive Method” (TCBM) cuff mechanism in the TM-2657P provides sophisticated automatic cuff size adjustment, ensuring the arm is positioned correctly for accurate high speed measurement, first time, every time.

With a centrally located simple one-button operation, it can be used on children (13 years or above) and adults with either the left or right arm. After the reading, the results are output to the inbuilt thermal printer with the date, time systolic, diastolic and pulse rate clearly displayed. New printing options also permit the inclusion of a barcode or QR code on the print out.

The printout will also display (if present) an irregular heartbeat symbol. An irregular heartbeat is defined as a heartbeat that varies by 25% from the average of all heartbeats during the blood pressure measurement.

Like the previous model, the TM-2657P looks set to be popular with GP Practices looking for a clinically validated, easy to use professional waiting room blood pressure monitor.

 

 

Key features

  • Compact size and weight (140(w) x 60(h) x 105(d) mm weighs (245g) ex batteries
  • Advanced Oscillometric method for hospital accuracy
  • 60 reading memory with average
  • Correct cuff fit and movement detector
  • Irregular heartbeat indicator with frequency detected
  • WHO blood pressure classification index
  • European Society of Hypertension International Protocol clinical validation
  • Five- year warranty
  • Battery or mains (optional extra) operation

The frequency of IHB (Irregular Heart Beat) detection is divided into different grades and shown by icons.

  • 0-24% : No Indication
  • 25-49% : Grade 1
  • 50-74% : Grade 2
  • 75-100% : Grade 3

The latest A&D Medical UA-767S builds on the popularity, accuracy and reliability of the original UA-767 series but it adds additional new advanced features. It is a popular upper arm blood pressure monitor with a 60 reading memory with averaging function, cuff fit and movement error functions and a simple one-button operation. This model features a new Irregular Heartbeat Indicator (IHB) function, which identifies the frequency of IHB by dividing the number of IHBs by the total number of readings taken to grade the occurrence of IHB accordingly. The more frequent the IHB appears the greater the risk. This feature is for monitoring purposes only. The UA-767S is supplied with a standard 22-32cm cuff. For customers with a larger arm we recommend the UA-767S-W, which has a 22-42cm cuff. It has a proven reliability record and is used extensively in the UK.