Ambulatory Remote Monitoring for Pulmonary Edema

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): CHF is the number one cause of hospitalization of patients 65 years older in the U.S. today, and is expected increase at more than 25% per year due to the aging of the baby boomer generation. With more than 70% of all expenditures on CHF patients spent on hospitalizations, the need exists today to prevent admissions by diagnosing and therapeutically responding earlier in a home environment. The Company is developing such a fully ambulatory home based therapy that includes highly sensitive diagnostic patches and algorithms to allow the clinician and patient to respond earlier than current technologies/systems. The highly sensitive diagnostic patches/platform would incorporate the algorithms developed in this proposal to enable earlier detection and therapeutic response at home. The wireless transmission of the diagnostic information would enable the physician to change the patient's script remotely and respond to both physiological and lifestyle changes the system detects. The patch "Smart Band-Aid" platform would enable continuous monitoring and be worn under the patient's clothing to detect the onset/progression of pulmonary edema by utilizing multifrequency bioelectric impedance spectroscopy technology. This Phase I SBIR proposal will characterize the necessary parameters in an animal model to detect the transition to pulmonary edema for use in the patch's algorithm and requisite circuitry.