Collectively, these efforts represent a significant investment in ensuring high quality of care for HF patients. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, the advances have been minimal. The prevalence of HF continues to rise, with only small improvements to survival being achieved, and costs continuing to increase.
A better approach
The time has come to provide better tools for managing patients, not simply imposing penalties for not providing quality care or incentives for doing slightly better than others. Medical technology today is evolving at an unprecedented rate, with new advances coming to the forefront to improve the lives of patients through smarter technology. The same should be happening with HF patients. Accurate, affordable noninvasive tools are critical for clinicians and patients alike.
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Clinicians shouldn’t have to guess if a patient has too much fluid or whether fluid has increased or decreased. The art of the clinical assessment is rapidly declining because of increased reliance on advanced tools, the slowness of making an accurate assessment and vague, misleading signs. The result: physicians are less skilled in clinical assessment and many patients subsequently go undiagnosed.
Finally, fluid analysis tools should be quick, efficient, and easy to use so that any medical professional can use them. In fact, patients should also be able to use them at home for self-monitoring.
For example, bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) technologies can be used in noninvasive clinical assessment and monitoring of tissue composition and fluid status. One FDA-cleared and CE-marked medical device, SOZO, can be used for multiple indications, including heart failure and lymphedema, to not only analyze personal data but also use population health data to compare individual data with others of similar demographics, to better understand each patient’s health needs.
These smarter tools and technology offer individualized assessment and management and are currently available for improved fluid analysis and management among HF patients.
About the author: Dennis Schlaht is the senior vice president, R&D and Technology, for ImpediMed.Back to HCB News
