Telemonitoring is a tool with proven results demonstrating clinical benefits in reducing mortality and hospitalizations. In this context, heart rate and rhythm are vital signs of utmost importance for monitoring a patient's condition. Recent advances in mobile technologies have allowed smartphones to be of great usage in this scenario, given its processing power, connectivity capabilities, sensor hardware and camera quality. This paper describes the usage of a smartphone camera to detect the heart rate and rhythm of a patient. A photoplethysmogram signal is obtained with the user's fingertip placed over the smartphone camera. An evaluation has been performed on 43 subjects with heart failure. For each patient the signal obtained with the smartphone camera was compared with the ECG signal acquired in hospital environment. Results demonstrate the heart rate can be effectively estimated using that approach with an error rate of 4.75%. Atrial Fibrillation detection with our method achieved a specificity of 97% and sensitivity of 75%
Heart failure is associated with high costs which are mainly the result of recurrent hospital admissions. New strategies to detect early decompensation and prevent heart failure-related hospitalizations and reduce total health care costs are needed. Telemonitoring is a novel tool based on the use of recent communication technologies to monitor simple clinical variables, in order to enable early detection of heart failure decompensation, providing an opportunity to prevent hospitalization. From conventional telemonitoring to more recent strategies using implantable cardiac devices or implantable hemodynamic monitors, the subject is under active investigation. Despite the beneficial effects reported by meta-analyses of small non-controlled studies, major randomized controlled trials have failed to demonstrate a positive impact of this strategy. Additionally, evidence regarding the value of newer monitoring devices is somewhat contradictory, as some studies show benefits in prognosis which are not confirmed by others. This paper provides an overview of the existing evidence on telemonitoring in heart failure and a comprehensive state-of-the-art discussion on this topic.
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