Omar Butt, Innovation Advisor, talks about his work to rollout new technologies across North West London to detect the most common irregular heart rhythm and prevent strokes:
“Did you know that between 35-50 per cent of patients considered being high risk of having a stroke in North West London is due to the most common type of irregular heart rhythm, Atrial Fibrillation (AF), going undetected?
Did you also know that there is technology ready and waiting to tackle this figure and save countless lives?
Here at ICHP we have nearly 300 mobile ECG devices called Kardia through our partnership work with NHS England and local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
Karida’s can detect a patient’s irregular heart rhythm quickly and easily through a patient placing their figures on a pad and connecting it to a phone app. In just 30 seconds patient’s with irregular heart rhythms can be detected and their health care professional can refer them for a follow up helping to prevent hundreds of strokes per year.
Part of my role here at ICHP is reaching out to GP practices, pharmacies, and other primary care settings, going door to door, providing personalised training on Kardia devices and also explaining what resources we at ICHP and our CCG partners can provide like our ‘AF Opportunity Analysis Tool’.
Using tools like this and our partnership with North West London CCGs we’re coordinating our Kardia rollout targeting providers who are identified as being most able to screen high risk patients. As well as the huge benefits for patients through preventing an AF-related stroke, the programme will result in significant savings for CCG’s through reducing associated health costs of treating patients who have had strokes. This is just one example of how my work here and developing strong partnership allows us to take advantage of innovation to save lives and use resources more efficiently.”
