Technology
Acoustic Cardiography combines the time-proven, classic concept of auscultation with state-of-the-art, proprietary techniques for simultaneously detecting, recording, documenting and analyzing the Heart Sounds and Electrocardiogram associated with normal and abnormal cardiac function. Unlike other cardiac diagnostics that focus on either the electrical or the mechanical capabilities of the heart, AUDICOR® Technology analyzes the entire function of the heart concurrently and provides clinicians a complete analysis of the heart's hemodynamic capabilities.
An example of an AUDICOR® Report. Click Here for a Review of Acoustic Cardiography
AUDICOR Technology has demonstrated clinical utility by facilitating the assessment of left ventricular cardiac function in many areas of disease management, in particular, the clinically and economically challenging area of Diagnosis and Management of Heart Failure. Through determination of key associated parameters, AUDICOR® recordings have been shown to be accurate and cost effective tools for the diagnosis of decompensating heart failure; the prognosis of hemodynamic stability after discharge; and the titration of heart failure therapy options.
Hospital to Home Initiative
The hemodynamic stability of heart failure patients after discharge remains a clinical challenge for clinicians and a financial burden for hospitals and health care systems worldwide.
The Hospital to Home (H2H) initiative, led by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), is a national quality improvement campaign to reduce cardiovascular-related hospital readmissions and improve the transition from inpatient to outpatient status for individuals hospitalized with cardiovascular disease.
Although the program offers tools such as patient education and intensified follow-up strategies, no definitive methods have consistently shown an improvement in the objectives of the initiative.
To date the only techniques for monitoring worsening heart failure in the ambulatory outpatient setting are indirect measures of decompensation such as edema, weight change, or dyspnea. Ambulatory AUDICOR® Technology has the potential to identify patients' need for intense follow-up as well as monitoring for early changes in hemodynamic factors that precede decompensation. This enables early intervention through trans-telephonic counseling or outpatient clinic visits to titrate their on-going therapy. Acoustic Cardiography is the only technology that can be adapted to both in-clinic and home monitoring either as a stand-alone system or integrated into other devices such as a Holter Monitor, Event Recorder or even an AED.
AUDICOR Technology has the potential to be the ideal technology to meet the objectives of improving cardiac care and reducing readmission, which in turn reduces overall healthcare costs for this significant segment of chronically ill patients. Increasing sophistication of the analysis of ECG and heart sound data is also yielding new methods of ischemia detection and rhythm discrimination as well as other comorbidities of heart failure, which are clinically important aspects in holistic heart failure management programs.
For information on the Hospital to Home Initiative, click here.