Bridging Gaps in Diagnosis and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Treatment of Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is influenced by age, distance to healthcare, and socioeconomic position. While diagnosing it is challenging, receiving treatment is a more significant challenge in inaccessible rural communities or even war-torn regions. It is characterized by the paucity of trained private sector service providers, healthcare equipment, and supplies.

Poor knowledge and awareness of CVD coupled with the unavailability of medical care facilities as well as services lead to poor management of the disease in rural regions.
Early diagnosis of CVD is critical to better disease outcomes, but the primary healthcare providers’ capacity to screen, test, and treat cardiovascular risk factors and diseases is seriously lacking.

Improve the patients’ long-term health through early and more efficient intervention and ease the economic burden on the health system by preventing more serious and costly health complications and alleviating pressure on healthcare workers.
To achieve this, we had to design a portable and simple point-of-care solution that leverages the existing tech infrastructure to help primary healthcare providers screen, test, and treat cardiovascular risk factors and diseases.

We followed the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) design approach to create a viable solution in a short span. It is an iterative process based on constant user feedback and remains user-focused throughout. It aims to tackle problems or address needs in unique ways. It is an opportunity to set a benchmark in the industry.

Solution
The solution was to design a simple, user-friendly application for frontline health workers that would help them share data from electrocardiographic screenings done in remote regions with the nearest available specialist providers. This application would quickly flag cases that called for prompt treatment through timely referrals.

To ensure its universal application from remote rural settings to war-torn inaccessible regions, we made use of standardized healthcare units to represent data. The connectivity to portable ECG devices was crucial as well.

Key Highlights
A portable 12-lead ECG device can be attached to computers, mobile phones, and tablets for use in primary care, expanding the coverage of CVD care even in remote settings.

Each primary healthcare provider (PHP) uses the mobile ECG device connected to our custom-designed cloud-based application. The PHP can scan the patient’s nationalized ID (if available) to authenticate their identity.

The system picks patient details such as name, age, and date of birth from the government-mandated national registry, wherever available and applicable.
The PHP adds the symptoms and risk factors, including the patient’s and their family’s medical history, if available.