Real-time monitoring of heart made easy

Hyderabad: Cardiac monitoring systems are widely used to identify heart diseases, to monitor cardiac activity before and after surgery and other cardiac procedures, and to assess the effects of therapeutic drugs on cardiac activity. Earlier monitoring cardiac arrhythmias and cardiovascular disease with the Holter Monitors was difficult because it was bulky with a lot of wires, which made the patient very uncomfortable to carry on him all the time. For some people, it was not possible to carry that device due to work commitments and other responsibilities.

Monitra Healthcare, a Hyderabad-based med-tech company, which specialises in developing solutions, has come up with a cardiac monitoring device for cardiac arrhythmias and cardiovascular disease patients which captures their cardiac events beat by beat and makes an analysis report and sends it to the physicians who can monitor it on their smart phones, laptop or desktop in real time. This helps the doctor diagnose what's the underline cause for the symptoms that the patients are experiencing just going through the data records.

"Our products detect cardiac arrhythmias and cardiovascular disease in real-time for pre-emptive treatments. Our company's vision is to dramatically reduce the effects of heart disease by making monitoring and pre-emptive cardiac care a seamless part of everyday life. There have been devices in the market for the last two to three decades which were very bulky and made the patient very uncomfortable.

We are trying to solve the problem with devices that are extremely compact and easy to wear, something which can be put on like a band-aid; just peel off, stick the compact and easy to wear device on your chest for about 8 to 10 days. Now, while the patient does his daily errands, the device, meanwhile, captures data of heart, beat by beat and provides information to the physicians in real time. This helps the physician diagnose the underline cause for the symptoms that the patients are experiencing," said Ravi Bhogu, Founder of Monitra Healthcare.

Physicians are very busy, and it is impossible to monitor beat by beat status of their inpatients. In such situations, this device comes handy helping the patient and the doctor. Currently, there are 100 plus patients who are using 'UpBeat' and are being monitored by 10 plus doctors across the city.

"Due to the unavailability of time, we send detailed analysis as a PDF to the physicians who can refer it whenever they want. There are alarms which are based on multiple criteria like high and low heart rate, crossing a certain threshold and many more. If it is extremely critical the doctor immediately initiates suitable treatment for inpatients and for outpatients, advises them to visit any nearby hospital facility. In non critical cases, we have an escalation protocol where the physician's assistant sees the alert and consults the physician," said Ravi.

Monitra is trying to provide medical grade data to physicians which will allow them to diagnose the underlined problem which a fit-bit or any other fitness tracker can't do. The challenge was to find a material which is breathable and at the same time was waterproof which sticks to the skin and does not comes off easily. The materials are made by an Indian company DuPont, which manufactures bio-materials for Indian markets. It came up with a comfortable, breathable and durable material for Monitra Healthcare.