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Total Cardiac Care, a new smartphone application, is to be trialed this year by the Department of Cardiology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, Sydney. The application uses Bluetooth technology to help monitor the health of patients’ hearts after they have left the hospital.

The trial is led by Dr. Sze-Yuan Ooi, a Cardiologist at Prince of Wales Hospital, and Professor Nigel Lovell, of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales.

Patients selected for the trial will own a smartphone and have been admitted to hospital with either a heart attack or symptoms of heart failure.

Total cardiac care, a new smartphone application, uses bluetooth technology to help monitor the health of patients’ hearts after they have left the hospital

Patients in the trial will receive the smartphone application, as well as a Bluetooth, enabled weighing scale, blood pressure machine and activity band. Measurements taken using these devices will be transmitted via the patient’s own smartphone to a secure server that will be accessed by the research team.

Dr. Sze-Yuan Ooi said the application also allows patients to monitor their own progress and delivers lifestyle advice and education to patients in a format similar to a text message.

“It also allows us to monitor our patients in their homes and if their measurements are outside the normal range it triggers our team to respond.” says Dr. Ooi, “It helps us to detect and act upon early warning signs if our patient’s heart condition is deteriorating.”

The partners supporting the trial include Prince of Wales Hospital, University of NSW Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Heart Foundation, Austria Institute of Technology, University of Sydney School of Nursing and Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation.

It is anticipated that Total Cardiac Care will help to manage patients’ heart health after they have been in the hospital, prevent them from being readmitted to the hospital, and help motivate and educate patients about their condition.