CES 2023: OMRON Healthcare Unveiling New Efforts to Eliminate Heart Attack, Stroke

OMRON Healthcare Co. Ltd. is on a mission to eradicate heart attacks and strokes, and it is revealing its strategy at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The company is unveiling a new remote patient-monitoring (RPM) service at the show to realize its “Going for Zero” heart attack and stroke elimination mission. Specifically, OMRON is setting its sights on atrial fibrillation (AFib), one of the growing types of arrhythmias, and is introducing various efforts to detect early AFib.
 
Early Heart Disease Detection via Blood Pressure Monitoring + ECG Tech
As it presents subtle symptoms that come and go, or simply goes unnoticed, it is difficult to detect Afib at an early stage. However, early detection and appropriate treatment can reduce the heart attack and stroke risk. A study shows hypertension increases AFib risk to three times the average level. In the United States, there are 116 million adults living with high blood pressure and 37 million of them have uncontrolled Stage 2 hypertension.¹ Research shows the prevalence of AFib will continue to increase over the next decade² and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 12.1 million people in the United States will have AFib in 2030.³ The company has globally released the upper-arm blood pressure monitor with built-in ECG. With this innovative device, users and healthcare professionals are able to utilize home-monitored data for the treatment and, as a result, the early detection of AFib in hypertensive patients could be realized.
 
Expansion of Digital Health
OMRON also is unveilng the latest features, including a “Personal Heart Health Coach” and a “Care Team” in its OMRON connect, which has been released in the U.S., Canadian and EMEA markets. Under the “Personal Heart Health Coach,” the app analyzes vital data recorded with OMRON-connected devices by using AI technology and provides users with insights and guidance for behavior change along with recipe, health and exercise advice, and the target body weight and blood pressure matched to specific insights on a user’s data. A “Care Team” feature allows users to assemble their own care team, which can be a medical professional, friend, or family member. Team members can monitor the vital data in the app as well.
 
Innovation of Global RPM Services
Viso, a new multi-disease RPM platform in the United Kingdom, is scheduled to launch early this year and will help patients with chronic diseases share vital health data from their homes with their physicians. The service lets physicians monitor physical status and the medication adherence of their patients to improve chronic care management. In the U.K., patients have an option to register with a General Practitioner (GP) who will care for a wide range of patients and conditions, from an initial visit to long-term treatment. Therefore, optimizing the distribution of their time and workloads is critical.
 
With Viso, patients are able to share their multiple vital data, including blood pressure and body weight, with their physicians while the physicians remotely monitor their patients’ data between their office visits. Accumulated blood pressure data by Viso is analyzed by a medication program being developed by a University of Oxford team, and the app recommends a customized three-month medication plan for each patient to their doctors. With Viso, patients are also able to input their medication adherence and physical condition by answering the questionnaire that is supervised by specialist doctor. Therefore, the more the users use the app, the better it gets to know patients and how it can help them understand the condition. The app sends automatic notifications through physicians when a patient has readings that indicate if action needs to be taken, which spotlights the most urgent and high-risk needs. Viso can be integrated directly with the physician’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) so that the patients’ records are safely and securely managed centrally and comprehensively. 
 
VitalSight is an RPM solution for U.S. patients with high blood pressure.

References
¹ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (October 14, 2022). “Facts about hypertension,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/facts.htm
² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (October 14, 2022). “Atrial Fibrillation,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/atrial_fibrillation.htm
³ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (October 14, 2022). “Atrial Fibrillation,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/atrial_fibrillation.htm