LIAM WIDDICOMBE
‘Cardihab’, a Brisbane based start-up aims to save thousands of lives every year in Australia through monitoring the rehabilitation process of those with cardiovascular disease.
Through linking a patients daily routine, diet and exercise patterns and sending the data directly to their doctor, Cardihab aims to encourage those in rehabilitation to stick to their prescribed limits.
This comes amidst a recent study by the Australian Heart Foundation which found heart attack survivors who complete rehabilitation are over 40% less likely to suffer a relapse and 25% less likely to die on account of their heart disease.
Founder of the Cardihab app, Gary Barber believes it will greatly increase the effectiveness of the rehabilitation program, stating a key problem behind why people do not complete their rehabilitation is due to accessibility and convenience.
“The way normal cardiac rehab works is it’s usually a 6-8 week long program where the person has to go to a clinic once or twice a week and that can really be inconvenient, especially for patients who have returned to work, or for rural remote patients,” McBride told TechRepublic.
“Cardihab makes it more convenient for patients by installing the app on phones that collects useful data during the week and at the end of each week they have a phone call with a clinician.”
Cardihab works by collecting data about a patient, including how many steps a patient has taken, their blood pressure and sugar levels, and then via Bluetooth enabled monitors, sends data to the cloud to be shared with the patient’s clinician, who can access it through an online portal.
Based on research by the Commonwealth Science Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and through trials with Queensland Health, Cardihab has already reduced clinical hospital visits by 89% and improved rehabilitation completion rates by 70%.
Heart attack survivor and Brisbane resident, Simon Stephens is looking forward to the public release of the app believing it will be a great encouragement in sticking to his rehabilitation plan.
“After major heart surgery there’s many things you cant do anymore, no matter how much you want to,” Mr Stephens said.
“Cardihab will let me know what my limits are, and how far I can push certain things.”
While the Cardihab app is still currently in its pilot testing phase, a full release of the application is expected to launch early 2017.
Cardihab is a spin-off company from CSIRO and is also a participant of the HCF Catalyst accelerator program.