Page 17 - EE Times Europe March 2022

EE|Times EUROPE 17

TELEMEDICINE
Abbott Prepares for a Telehealth Future

By Anne-Françoise Pelé

fter living through two years of a global health crisis, nothing
seemed more natural than to have Abbott chairman and
CEO Robert Ford take center stage at this year’s Consumer
A Electronics Show (CES). Of course, it was necessary to scrape
off the varnish of a keynote thought out to the word and orchestrated
like a reality TV show to perceive the group’s vision and advancements
in telehealth technologies.
“Health tech is at an inflection point, and Covid-19 has powerfully
underscored the importance of health and the growing value of the
technologies that protect and advance it,” said Ford in his introduction.
“People can proactively manage their health, detect a disease earlier,
and even prevent it from happening. This convergence of health and
technology has the power to digitize, decentralize, and democratize
health care to create a shared language between you and your doctor CardioMEMS HF system
and put more control of your health in your hands.”
Here are some of the innovations Abbott showcased at CES 2022 that Remote monitoring is becoming increasingly important in the manage-
aim to make telehealth more accessible and useful to patients. ment of patients with chronic heart failure, and Abbott has developed
the CardioMEMS HF system, a pressure sensor that remotely monitors
REDUCING PARKINSON’S TREMORS changes in a patient’s fluid status.
For people living with movement disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, The CardioMEMS HF system provides pulmonary artery pressure
managing treatment is a huge challenge. Abbott has developed a neuro- monitoring using a sensor permanently implanted in the distal pul-
modulation therapy, which delivers low-intensity electrical impulses to monary artery via a safe right heart catheterization procedure. The
the nerve structures to suppress tremors and help restore movement in detected changes are a surrogate measure for fluid retention in the
the body. However, this therapy must be adapted to the evolution of lungs caused by worsening heart failure.
the patient’s condition. While The sensor readings taken daily by the patient from home are trans-
in the past, this meant time- mitted wirelessly to a secure website for clinicians to access and review.
consuming visits to the neurol- Direct monitoring of pulmonary pressure not only alerts the clinician
ogist, Ford said that Abbott’s if a patient’s heart failure is worsening, but it also allows him or her to
newly launched NeuroSphere intervene earlier by adjusting medications or making other treatment
Virtual Clinic makes it possible changes, often before the patient develops symptoms.
“to optimize your implants
remotely to deliver the right ‘This convergence of health and technology
doses of electrical impulses to
you, wherever you are.” has the power to ... create a shared language
To support his point, Ford between you and your doctor and put more
gave the floor to Dr. Fiona Gupta,
director of the Movement control of your health in your hands.’
Disorders Outreach Program
at Mount Sinai Health System, — ROBERT FORD, Abbott chairman & CEO
in New York. Talking about the
FDA-approved system, Gupta During his presentation, Ford invited Dr. Leslie Saxon, a professor of
said it has more than 50,000 medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern
settings that can be adjusted California (USC) and executive director of the USC Center for Body
The FDA-approved NeuroSphere and fine-tuned to make it Computing and USC Virtual Care Clinic, to share insights about her
Virtual Clinic truly personalized. Another collaboration with Abbott.
advantage is her ability as a “At USC, our research was the first to show that an implantable
physician to see her patients at home “as long as they have Wi-Fi or defibrillator to treat patients with heart failure, when connected to the
cellular access.” For instance, she illustrated, “They show me how they internet, improves the longevity of people living with heart failure,”
are playing the piano, how they interact with their pets, and how they said Saxon. “This continuous data — and it’s key that it’s continuous
navigate in their kitchen. This gives me the opportunity to personalize — provides the earliest warning of a serious event that can then be
their deep-brain stimulation and help them continue to do the things treated or mitigated before it happens.”
they love to do.” The benefits are as much for the patient as for the cardiologist.
“People can go on living their lives with ease and increased comfort,
PREVENTING HEART FAILURE because they have these early warning systems looking out for them,”
Historically, clinicians have focused on physiologic markers such as said Saxon. Similarly, “health-care providers like myself — and this is
patient weight and blood pressure to detect worsening heart failure. really important — can focus their time more efficiently on people who
Unfortunately, these markers appear late in the course of decompen- actually need their support and [can] scale and offer their services to
sation, leaving little time to respond before hospitalization is required. people anywhere in the world.”

www.eetimes.eu | MARCH 2022