Scientists develop technology to improve heart problems’ diagnosis and treatment – including an iPhone app to record your heartbeat
- Researcher developing technology to make a detailed ‘twin’ of a patient’s heart for doctors to plan surgery better sees potential in an iPhone app he built
- The Echoes app uses an iPhone microphone to record your heartbeat, and could become a diagnostic tool. A fellow scientist is trialling VR to read heart scans
The heart is a complex organ, and decisions about its health and treatment are often specific to individual patients. Personalised healthcare is therefore well suited to heart problems.
Two researchers at the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King’s College, London, are developing ways for cardiologists and surgeons to learn more about the different hearts they are treating, including an app called Echoes whose users can help researchers compile useful data.
The two spoke at a recent “New Scientist Live” event in London.
Pablo Lamata de la Orden is a Wellcome Senior Research Fellow at the school. One of his research projects is Echoes. The app enables individuals to use the microphone on an iPhone to record their heart.
The app currently has no diagnostic purposes – it was developed so users could learn a bit more about how their heart works – and send in recordings (anonymously) to add to the database.
“It’s meant to be a public engagement tool, something that you can use to learn more about your machinery,” says Lamata. “It’s beautiful when you start learning about how your heart works. I still get a sense of wonder about this after 14 years.”