A recent paradigm-shift in the global burden of cardiovascular diseases has been observed with a decreasing prevalence in industrialized nations and an increasing prevalence in resource limited areas. This problem is further compounded with resource-limited areas receiving a disproportionately low allocation of global resources including diagnostic tests and trained healthcare professionals. Such cardiovascular conditions include heart failure, coronary artery disease, atrial arrhythmias and hypertensive heart disease. Coupled with a rising epidemic of rheumatic and structural heart disease affecting over 15- million individuals in these regions creates an urgent need that requires innovative and scalable methods to improve population- health, methods that reduce the cost of care, and simultaneously improves outcomes.
The World Health Organization's Millennium Developmental Goals has recently reported a rise in cellular phone technologies with 7-Billion devices in active circulation. Parallel developments with the globalization of Internet-based communication and the emergence of new smartphone-connected mobile health (mHealth) devices are providing new methods for patients to remotely monitor their chronic conditions and for providers to improve healthcare delivery. These technologies include smartphone 'apps', wearable and wireless devices such as the smartphone-ECG, sensor-based technologies, pocket-sized ultrasound and miniaturized lab-on-a-chip technologies. Several design features of mHealth are well suited for use in resource-limited areas and used as a practitioner-based diagnostic tool including portability, lower cost, and simple to use form factors. Although an attractive method for new technology utilization, the impact of mHealth used as a practitioner-based clinical-decision-support tool on subsequent management and outcomes has not been previously evaluated.
Several barriers to effective healthcare exist in resource-limited areas that requires multidisciplinary collaborations between the community, medical centers, health workers and patients. Developing new digital programs with healthcare innovations in these regions brings together a collaboration of industry, researchers, engineers and information technology partners. In the aggregate, a cumulative effort across several disciplines is necessary in order to assess the feasibility, utility, and impact of new devices in resource constrained areas. The investigators describe a multidisciplinary and global effort across institutions in India and the United States. The investigators received support from international medical societies and device manufacturers to advance our knowledge for technology utilization and to improve healthcare access and outcomes for patients in resource limited areas.
