Abbott: First Smartphone Compatible Insertable Cardiac Monitor
By Edward Kim
October 23, 2017
•2 min read
An arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm that develops when disease or injury disrupts the heart’s electrical signals, causing the heart to beat erratically. Arrhythmias are very common, and nearly everyone will experience an abnormal heart rhythm at some point in their lives. While most arrhythmias are harmless, over 850,000 people are hospitalized annually due to arrhythmias, according to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) announced today that it received FDA approval to market its Confirm Rx™ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM), the world’s first and only smartphone compatible ICM designed to help physicians remotely identify cardiac arrhythmias and engage with their patients. Readers may recall Abbott’s acquisition of St. Jude Medical completed earlier this year; the Confirm RX ICM and myMerlin smartphone app were key assets in that deal.
“Confirm Rx shows what we can do with cutting edge communication technology and the most advanced medical devices that provide new opportunities to improve patient care,” said Avi Fischer, MD, divisional vice president and medical director of Abbott’s Cardiac Rhythm Management business. “By offering a device that uses Bluetooth wireless technology from the patient’s smartphone, we can help physicians easily and remotely diagnose potentially dangerous abnormal heart beats without requiring the patient to use a separate or cumbersome recording device.”
Once implanted—just under the skin in the chest during a quick, minimally-invasive outpatient procedure—Confirm Rx continuously monitors heart rhythms to detect a range of cardiac arrhythmias, including irregular heartbeats, or atrial fibrillation. Data collected by the device is then securely transmitted to a patient’s physician via the mobile app on a schedule set by the clinic. The app also allows patients to record symptomatic events from their own smartphone without the need for additional hardware such as handheld activators or bedside transmitters.
The Confirm Rx is designed for:
- Continuous heart monitoring using the patient’s smartphone to record episodes of irregular heartbeat.
- The ability for patients to easily send their heart rhythm information to their doctor without interrupting daily activities.
- A discreet implant—the slimmest insertable cardiac monitor available today.
The associated myMerlin smartphone app enables patients to track symptoms proactively, sync their data with their clinic at any time and view their transmission history without having to contact their clinic to confirm successful data transfers. The Confirm Rx ICM limits communication to a single authenticated myMerlin mobile app, and all wireless communications are encrypted using the highest standards in mobile security.
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