West London NHS Trust to trial FibriCheck

With the backing of the CW Innovation initiative, led by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and its charity CW+, the West London NHS trust adopted FibriCheck to empower patients to self-monitor signs of atrial fibrillation (AF) from the comfort of their home.

Following a staff initiated funding call for new digital innovations called RADICAL, FibriCheck was chosen as the winning project. The clinical trial, which forms part of the trust’s ongoing efforts to enable clinicians to care for patients without having to travel to hospital, explores how well AF is detected in people who have had a recent stroke and assess patient experience and satisfaction with the app.

With FibriCheck, patients are able to check their heart rate and rhythm by simply placing a finger on the lens of their smartphone to measure pressure pulse signals. Only when AF is detected by the app, patients will be called in for formal diagnosis and treatment. Saving patients’ travel and appointment time, while freeing up capacity for more acute cases.

“FibriCheck is quick, reliable and easy to use, and the diagnostics will provide vital information so we can detect AF earlier in people who have had a recent stroke and undertake the next steps in clinical care to reduce the risk of further strokes,” says Dr Sadia Khan, Consultant Cardiologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. “I’m confident the app will be a game changer in the way we manage patient care in the Stroke service”.