Battling Heart Disease With New Tech

(Newswire.net — April 5, 2018) Newport Beach, CA — Heart disease kills millions of people every year and until recently, the odds of that changing looked bleak. In the United States alone, more than 600,000 people die from a heart attack every year. The key to turning things around may lie with new emerging technologies. Companies like Advanced Bifurcation Systems (ABS) are developing improvements on existing technologies that can save many lives. The growth of other technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and wearable medical devices, are promising as well.

 Improving the Stent

The new stenting technology currently undergoing medical trials at ABS could potentially be one of the biggest medical breakthroughs in the last few years. With the technology currently in use, stenting procedures for branched arteries are complex and difficult to perform. Many heart specialists simply refer their patients to open-heart surgeons rather than move forward with the risky procedure.

Unfortunately, open-heart surgery is not only expensive it’s a risky procedure. There’s a lot greater chance of something going wrong during one of these operations than there is if a simple stent insertion is a viable option.

The average open-heart surgery can cost as much as $200,000. When you consider that somewhere between 25 and 30% of coronary patients have issues with clogs in branched arteries, the problem is a significant one.

The ABS procedure has proven far more successful than current stenting methods in medical trials. It uses a dual catheter system that places stents in branched arteries simultaneously. The system is self-aligning, minimizing the risk of placement errors and the need for further surgeries to correct them. The procedure is cost effective and non-invasive. Instead of spending months in recovery from open-heart surgery, the patient can return to their normal life within a week of the procedure.

 Other Promising Technology

In sci-fi movies, Artificial Intelligence is often depicted as the beginning of the end for mankind as the machines take over. The reality is nowhere near as bleak. In fact, most evidence suggests that AI will actually help make humans live longer, healthier lives. In research tests, AI has actually been able to outperform the American College of Cardiology when it comes to predicting the chances that a patient will suffer a cardiac event in the near future.

AI should begin to reduce the risk of human diagnostic error in the next few years. The technology won’t replace doctors and nurses, but it will complement their skills. It will also free up their time so that they can spend more of it building patient relationships and changing the image of the healthcare system. Instead of taking over, Artificial Intelligence will actually become a true partner and could help to reduce healthcare costs by millions of dollars.

Smart Tech and Wearables

Wearables also have the potential to help those living with heart disease live longer lives. In the last couple of years, they’ve become popular as fitness monitoring devices for exercise enthusiasts, but they can also help cardiac patients keep track of vital information.

In the near future, these devices will be able to monitor a patient’s heart rate, their blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and even their cholesterol. This information will then be synced through an app and forwarded to their healthcare provider. This will allow them to find early warning signs of problems much sooner and take measures to correct them. 

A Healthy Heart Future

For healthcare professionals and their patients, all of these advances are cause for optimism. There are promising signs that the number of deaths from heart attack and stroke will begin to decline in the next decade. It couldn’t come at a better time in America as the system begins to strain under unsustainable financial pressures.