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FAQs
Q: Why is heart failure a critical medical issue?
Q: Why is heart failure difficult to diagnose?
Q: How do diseases like heart failure cause the heart to produce abnormal sound?
Q: What is the clinical relevance of the third heart sound in heart failure?
Q: How can AUDICOR® help the medical system improve the clinical management and costs of heart failure?
Q: Is AUDICOR® expensive technology to buy?
Q: What is AUDICOR®?
Q: What is the technology behind AUDICOR®?
Q: How can AUDICOR® help hospitals better manage higher risk cardiac patients including those with heart failure and acute coronary syndrome?
Q: Are there peer-reviewed publications on this technology?
Q: What role should we expect your company to play in shaping the future of this market?
Q: Why is heart failure a critical medical issue?
Heart failure is a growing epidemic in the United States. According to the 2004 American Heart Association Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update, an estimated 5 million Americans have heart failure and 550,000 new cases are reported each year, total mortality of 260,000. There are approximately 1 million hospital discharges with a primary diagnosis of heart failure an additional 2.4-2.6 million discharges with heart failure as either a primary or secondary diagnosis. Further estimates suggest that heart failure is a primary complaint responsible for 12-15 million physician office visits each year. All this activity translates into a potential cost of $28.8 billion for the US healthcare system.
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Q: Why is heart failure difficult to diagnose?
Heart failure patients frequently represent diagnostic challenges to physicians because shortness of breath, a key symptom of heart failure, may be a non-specific finding in many elderly or obese patients. Clinicians need to differentiate patients with heart failure from other diseases, such as pulmonary disease. A patient's past history is helpful, but only 81% accurate; chest x-rays are also helpful, but only 75% accurate. Lab tests are good tools; however, studies indicate results are negatively influenced by a variety of diseases. AUDICOR® identifies the third heart sound, which studies confirm is a highly specific marker for heart dysfunction associated with heart failure.
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Q: How do diseases like heart failure cause the heart to produce abnormal sound?
The heart produces both normal ("lub-dub") and abnormal sounds as blood moves throughout the heart. Cardiac diseases including heart failure cause the heart muscle to stiffen, making it difficult for the heart to properly contract and relax as it pumps blood. The abnormal third heart sound is produced when fast moving blood is suddenly stopped because the stiffened heart wall is unable to stretch.
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Q: What is the clinical relevance of the third heart sound in heart failure?
The presence of a third heart sound has high prognostic and diagnostic value in adults over 40 years old who exhibit signs and symptoms associated with heart failure. A landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine indicated the presence of a third heart sound (S3) is 99% specific for heart failure and leads to increased morbidity and mortality. The absence of a third heart sound, however, it is not sufficient to exclude ventricular dysfunction, so further diagnostic investigations should be considered.
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Q: How can AUDICOR® help the medical system improve the clinical management and costs of heart failure?
AUDICOR® is a low cost non-invasive, technology that can be performed at the point-of-care in the pre-hospital environment, emergency departments, hospital inpatients, and physicians' offices by varying levels of skilled technicians because of its easy-to-use interface. It provides clinically important and actionable information about the heart's hemodynamic properties previously obtained by more expensive technologies, including echocardiography. The result is more heart failure patients may have access to better care because their care providers are identifying their diseases earlier with greater accuracy. Studies indicate faster, more accurate diagnosis enables earlier treatment, decreased mortality, decreased complications, and decreased cost.
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Q: Is AUDICOR® expensive technology to buy?
No. Because AUDICOR® is low cost, it does not require large capital expenditures for hospital or emergency medical systems to adopt this new innovative technology and begin realizing economic gains in several areas of the hospital (Emergency Department and Inpatient). AUDICOR® products are designed both as an add-on to existing cardiovascular equipment or as a stand alone unit, making it easy to incorporate into standard care protocols and workflows.
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Q: What is AUDICOR®?
AUDICOR® is the first non-invasive technology to accurately diagnose, quickly assess, and easily monitor higher risk cardiac conditions including heart failure and acute coronary syndrome (ACS). AUDICOR® is delivering value across the continuum of care because of its cost-effective nature and actionable diagnostic results that are helping improve missed diagnosis rates, facilitating earlier treatments, and improving clinical outcomes of patients.
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Q: What is the technology behind AUDICOR®?
AUDICOR®uses a patented signal processing technology called acoustic
cardiography to simultaneously integrate heart sounds and
single-channel electrocardiography input
to generate multiple parameters that correlate to established
hemodynamic measures. Dual-function AUDICOR®sensors are placed on a
patient's chest to record the incoming signals.
Click here to visit Our Technology page to learn more.
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Q: How can AUDICOR® help hospitals better manage higher risk cardiac patients including those with heart failure and acute coronary syndrome?
Many higher risk patients arrive to hospitals via emergency medical systems. An accurate diagnosis in the pre-hospital environment may help EMS providers direct patients to medical centers with facilities designed for cardiac care, helping hospitals better manage their increasing overcrowded emergency departments. Many hospitals are benefiting from AUDICOR® in their facilities through reductions in under or missed diagnoses, earlier initiation of treatment, shorter lengths of hospital stays, and improvements on their core measure performance, which is tracked by the Center for Medicare Services (CMS) and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). These core measures are a hospital's quality scorecard and new federal laws will begin impacting the economics of the hospital based on their performance. Studies indicate AUDICOR® used upfront in the earliest part of the emergency department evaluation can help eliminate missed diagnoses and assist the heart failure team to undertake the key core measure activities.
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Q: Are there peer-reviewed publications on this technology?
Yes. Several clinical papers have been published in leading scientific medical journals authored by experts in heart failure care including the Journal of the American Medical Association, Congestive Heart Failure, American Journal of Emergency Medicine, and the Archives of Internal Medicine. Through these peer-reviewed publications, physicians are learning the clinical utility of AUDICOR® technology and helping them improve how they clinically manage heart failure patients.
Click here to visit Publications page to learn more.
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Q: What role should we expect your company to play in shaping the future of this market?
Our vision for AUDICOR® is for it to be used routinely as an evaluator of cardiac function making it the standard of care for non-invasive, actionable cardiac assessment worldwide. Inovise Medical, the developer of AUDICOR®, is the pioneer and leader in simultaneous digital heart sound and electrocardiography technology that is shaping non-invasive cardiac care worldwide. Our international team of experts in the areas of diagnostic cardiology, patient monitoring, biomedical engineering and healthcare marketing/sales work collaboratively with globally-respected medical luminaries and corporate leaders to lead the delivery of new, innovative diagnostic tools that deliver both clinical and economic value. AUDICOR® will become the vital sign for the heart with value and applications that span across the continuum of care.
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