L2M- Unobtrusive Monitoring of Heart Failure via Ballistocardiograph

In Canada, heart failure (HF) has a 30-day re-admission rate of 17.6%. While patient care at home via follow-ups and self-management may reduce this rate, factors including physical fatigue and cognitive frailty delay follow-up visits and impair the patient’s ability to self-manage. An implantable solution such as CardioMEMS is available to monitor HF, however, its invasiveness and high cost (>$19,000) make the solution largely inaccessible. This project will study the use of smart home sensors to monitor HF patients and detect signs of decompensation autonomously during daily activities such as sleeping. At the core of the technology is a bio-signal called ballistocardiograph (BCG), which is a recoil force generated by the heart as it ejects blood. Our research has shown that BCG signals differentiated the physiologic state of 29 younger healthy adults and 26 older adults with moderate HF. Technical advances have also enhanced BCG signal acquisition from a single-axis to three-dimensional. We will evaluate data acquired from BCG sensors embedded in a conventional bed compared to contemporaneously acquired invasive heart chamber pressure measurements in a sample of HF patients. The system will be tested on HF patients with a range of health states, from ambulatory outpatients to hospitalized inpatients. The technology’s ability to detect the improvement after the treatment will be assessed, the success of which will validate the technology’s effectiveness as a HF monitoring tool. We will also evaluate and project the economic and health equity impact of the technology.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alex Mihailidis;Isaac Chang

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Biotechnology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: