Advancing Health Equity
Healthcare organizations face fundamental challenges in delivering equitable cardiovascular care. Digital health can help bridge the gap, but it is not delivering its full benefits to the many communities with the greatest needs.
Read more about CardioSignal’s work in addressing health inequities.
The burden of heart disease
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the deadliest and costliest diseases worldwide, claiming more than 20 million lives every year
Cardiovascular deaths are increasing globally due to aging population and increasing cardiovascular disease risk factors
While the age-standardized death rate has decreased, the progress is uneven (World Heart Report 2023)
Contact
We are partnering with like-minded individuals and organizations to come together in advancing health equity.
Tero-Pekka Alastalo (MD, PhD)
President, CardioSignal Inc
tpa@cardiosignal.com
Problem: Lower socioeconomic groups have a higher risk of dying from heart disease
What we do: Ability to deliver at-home monitoring for CVDs without additional hardware needed
People with lower education and income are estimated to have a 50–75% higher cardiovascular mortality risk than those with higher education and income (1). Other preventative cardiovascular programs have faced digital literacy challenges when hardware was required for at-home monitoring (2).
Smartphones offer the most accessible technology, with the average American already actively engaged on their phone ~5 hours a day.
CardioSignal technology harnesses the smartphone and requires no additional hardware. The simple, 1-minute measurement reduces barriers and paves the way for a wider adoption, even by hard- to-reach populations.
Problem: Ethnic and racial disparities are profound
What we do: Digitizing cardiac care in a network with a shared mission
Black individuals have a 30% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases than their Caucasian counterparts (1). The increased prevalence of heart disease risk factors and higher barriers to cardiac care access are key obstacles to overcome to improve health outcomes.
Using a scalable smartphone-based technology for heart disease screening addresses fundamental barriers to access care. To minimize inequities, our mission is to build a network of like-minded individuals and organizations to improve health equity and outcomes.
CardioSignal Inc was awarded the American Heart Association’s Empowered to Serve Program funding grant due to our focus on equitable heart disease detection.
Problem: Zip codes play a key role in health outcomes
What we do: Smartphone-based strategy permits cardiac care at a distance
Today in the US, ~25% of the population in rural areas (14.5M people) still lack access to fixed broadband internet. However, ~80% of people in these areas use smartphones (3).
Also, in a Pew Research Center study on Black Americans’ views about health disparity, 63% of respondents named “Place to Live” as a major reason African Americans have reduced access to quality medical care and overall poorer health outcomes (4).
CardioSignal allows activation of population-wide health initiatives: With a single single email and simple 3-step instructions for application download, we place a sophisticated cardiac care technology in people’s own hands in mere minutes.
Problem: Digital health is not designed for the patient populations most at risk
What we do: Provide knowhow in delivering easy-to-use tools for older population
Cardiac screening is important for older individuals, but digital tools often are not designed with older people in mind. However, studies suggest these groups are ready to adopt digital tools (5). In the UK, a study found that >50% of the elderly population supports the shift to digital health, but <4% were offered a health app by a healthcare professional (6).
In a global survey of ~600 CardioSignal users with an average age of 63, 91% said taking a measurement was easy. Only 2% said it is difficult. 84% had some risk factor for atrial fibrillation.
CardioSignal Inc consistently conducts usability studies and is a current participant in AgeTech Collaborative™ from AARP®.
Problem: Heart disease risk factors in women’s health are becoming more prevalent
What we do: Behavioral health and prevention through smartphones
The link between child-bearing years and future risk for cardiovascular diseases is evident, especially among Black women. This demands action to improve cardiac awareness and screening at younger age (7).
According to American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women, nearly 59% of Black women have a cardiovascular disease, with stroke being a major cause of death (8).
Studies suggest that smartphones as a care delivery strategy can enhance culturally tailored behavioral health interventions and raising heart health awareness, especially among younger women (9).
Problem: Digital health may lack clinical validation
What we do: Clinical validation that also represents marginalized populations
Digital health is often tested on advantaged groups, which can decrease inclusivity (10). PPG-based devices are less effective at tracking heart rate in those with darker skin tones (11). Clinical trials may fail to adequately include older adults (5) and many digital health solutions are found to have a low level of clinical robustness (12).
The performance of CardioSignal’s motion sensor technology is not limited by skin color. Our clinical studies included gender, age, and BMI diversity. The age range in our heart failure clinical trial was 29 to 88 years.
References
1) Singh GK, Siahpush M, Azuine RE, Williams SD. Widening Socioeconomic and Racial Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in the United States, 1969-2013. Int J MCH AIDS. 2015;3(2):106-118.2) Dagher L, Nedunchezhian S, El Hajjar AH, et al. A cardiovascular clinic patients' survey to assess challenges and opportunities of digital health adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cardiovasc Digit Health J. 2022;3(1):31-39. doi:10.1016/j.cvdhj.2021.10.0073) Eighth Broadband Progress Report, Federal Communications Commission (2022) & Rural Residents & Tech, PEW Research Center 20214) Pew Research Center on Black Americans’ views about health disparities (2022)5) Digital health equity for older population (The Lancet Digital Health, 2023)6) The Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA). DIGITAL HEALTH IN THE UK, 2021.7) Why Are Young Black Women at High Risk for Cardiovascular Disease? Circulation. 2019 Feb 19;139(8):1003-1004.8) Go Red for Women: Facts & Heart Disease in African American Women9) African American women's relationship with their mobile phone, and what they want in a mobile delivered physical activity intervention: guidance for intervention development. Mhealth. 2019 Jun 19;5:18. 10) Lyles CR, Wachter RM, Sarkar U. Focusing on Digital Health Equity. JAMA. 2021;326(18):1795–1796. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.1845911) Koerber, D., Khan, S., Shamsheri, T., Kirubarajan, A., & Mehta, S. The effect of skin tone on accuracy of heart rate measurement in wearable devices: A systematic review. J Am Coll Cardiol. 79(9), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0735-1097(22)02981-312) Day S, Shah V, Kaganoff S, Powelson S, Mathews SC. Assessing the Clinical Robustness of Digital Health Startups: Cross-sectional Observational Analysis J Med Internet Res 2022;24(6):e37677