June 12, 2015 - Researchers announced results of a new study which demonstrated that smartphone-based mHealth devices, coupled with handheld echocardiography, can provide improved assessment and are readily integrated at the point-of-care for evaluation of patients with structural heart diseases. This study was conducted as part of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Foundation's Valvular Assessment Leading to Unexplored Echocardiographic Stratagems (VALUES) program, a four-day teaching and research event held at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bangalore, India, August 11-14, 2014. Over the course of several days, researchers assessed patients with multiple forms of rheumatic valvular heart disease with either standard diagnostic equipment or mobile health-based devices.
"Mobile health, the practice of medicine with portable and smartphone-based technologies, is a rapidly expanding area in healthcare," commented primary investigator Sanjeev Bhavnani, M.D., of Scripps Health, Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego, California. "Our work sought to investigate the incremental benefit of portable devices such as the smartphone-connected iECG and point-of-care laboratory tests to handheld echocardiography through the design of mobile health clinics that were created to provide the diagnosis and treatment among a variety of patients with structural heart disease. These advances in mobile health are poised to transform many aspects of patient care."
For more information: www.asescientificsessions.org