STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor company, and Mayo Clinic, a health-care organization, are collaborating on a novel platform for remotely monitoring patients with chronic cardiovascular disease. The companies claims that the platform will provide a comprehensive and unobtrusive solution that monitors person-specific data and physiological parameters and influences lifestyle and treatment choices.
Telemedicine, which allows medical professionals to monitor or treat patients even when they are not in the same location, is widely recognized as an essential step in reducing the escalating cost of healthcare. Instead of entering a hospital or visiting a doctor for check-ups, the patient wears a small device that continually monitors a number of relevant physiological parameters. This approach has many potential benefits, including maintaining wellness, earlier detection of developing health conditions, improving lifestyle, and lowering healthcare costs.
“Mayo Clinic has always committed the best available resources to caring for patients with cardiovascular disease. This collaboration, by enhancing our ability to record important physiologic information while patients are outside the medical environment and active in their daily lives, will extend our ability to prevent and treat illness,” said Paul Friedman, M.D., a cardiology consultant and specialist in cardiovascular electrophysiology at Mayo Clinic, who added that an initial program of patient trials is already underway.
This platform is the result of an R&D collaboration that combines STMicroelectronics’s expertise in developing innovative solutions using its advanced sensor, microprocessor and communication products and Mayo Clinic’s best-in-class medical expertise. It uses a combination of sensors, ultra-low-power microcontroller and wireless modules, and interfaces to provide information about the patient’s heart rate, breathing rate, physical activity and other measurements wirelessly obtained from external medical devices.