Image courtesy of iRhythm Technologies
November 19, 2015 — iRhythm Technologies Inc. announced the launch of new patient engagement tools to enhance the diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias. Patients using the ZIO continuous cardiac monitoring service from iRhythm can now conveniently log heart symptoms with the new myZIO app for iPhone or at myZIO.com.
This new family of smartphone and Web applications is designed to provide additional data for physicians to help rule-in or rule-out arrhythmias sooner in the diagnostic pathway – and adjust the patient's care accordingly.
In addition to allowing patients to digitally record any irregular heartbeat symptoms and associated activities, the myZIO app maximizes a patient's experience with the ZIO Service by providing education, reminders, answering common questions and offering recommendations on the use of the ZIO Patch. Information from the app provides physicians with a more complete picture of the patient's health, allowing for faster and more accurate diagnosis and potentially eliminating the need for additional testing.
Each year, millions of patients see physicians because they feel symptoms that may be caused by an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. The iRhythm ZIO Service allows physicians to diagnose arrhythmias more definitively than via previously available diagnostic technologies, according to iRhythm.
The ZIO Service has the ability to record, store and analyze every heartbeat for up to 14 days, well beyond the 48-hour window of Holter monitoring. Studies of patients wearing the ZIO Patch documented that 50 percent of arrhythmias were diagnosed after 48 hours and that 75 percent of atrial fibrillation patients experienced their longest episode after 48 hours.
"The myZIO app is a great companion to iRhythm's continuous cardiac monitoring service, making it even easier for my patients with suspected cardiac arrhythmias to record their symptoms while wearing the ZIO Patch," said R. Hardwin Mead, M.D., partner and co-founder at Silicon Valley Cardiology in East Palo Alto, Calif. "Such a discreet and convenient way to track symptoms gets the patient intimately involved in the diagnostic process. Combining that additional valuable information with the 20,000 minutes of heartbeat data captured by the ZIO Patch will provide me an even more robust clinical arrhythmia interpretation."
The myZIO iOS app is available for download from the Apple App Store. myZIO is also available as a web application for non-iPhone users at myZIO.com.
For more information: www.irhythmtech.com