AI-Based Cardiovascular Screening Relieves the Burden on Heart Specialists
Noah Labs aims to alleviate the burden on cardiology practices and hospitals in Germany through AI-supported telemonitoring of patients.
The Noah Labs Ark software, along with its intelligent connected care platform, enables comprehensive remote monitoring and management of chronic diseases using traditional vital parameters. Adesso Ventures is providing the Berlin-based start-up with financial support as well as access to Adesso’s expertise and network.
The current application focuses on heart failure, while high blood pressure and cardiac arrhythmia can also be monitored with the software. The solution received approval as a Class IIa medical device under the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in April 2024 and is already being used in numerous practices and clinics.
Early Warning System for Cardiovascular Diseases
In standard cardiovascular screening today, patients measure their vital parameters using medical devices such as scales, blood pressure monitors, or ECG devices. They then send this data to their treating heart specialists at regular intervals for evaluation. The challenge lies in the manual evaluation of vital data, which causes significant delays in preventive care. This makes it difficult for cardiologists to respond promptly, potentially leading to unnecessary and costly hospital admissions.
The Noah Labs Ark platform connects approved medical devices, such as smartwatches, ECG devices, and blood pressure monitors, and transmits the data collected from patients to doctors’ surgeries or clinics in real time. Its analytics engine processes this data using specific biomarkers to assess the patient’s health status and make predictions. For example, it can evaluate an increase in weight and body water in relation to blood pressure and heart rate. If a patient exhibits abnormalities, the solution notifies the responsible specialist so that timely measures can be taken. This proactive approach effectively reduces the number of hospital admissions.
Audible Biomarker
Together with the German Heart Centre at Charité and the US Mayo Clinic, Noah Labs is currently researching AI-supported voice-based diagnostics for heart disease. The approach focuses on how heart failure causes water retention throughout the body, including in the lungs, which can result in pulmonary oedema in acute cases. These deposits can alter the patient’s voice depending on their severity. While extreme cases may be noticeable to the human ear, artificial intelligence could detect subtler changes much earlier. Developing and applying a non-invasive biomarker based on these voice alterations could significantly enhance the accuracy of early diagnosis and monitoring of heart failure.
As part of three studies, the Analytics Engine from Noah Labs is analyzing voice samples from test subjects for hundreds of parameters to detect and evaluate even the smallest changes. The project partners are set to publish the first study results shortly. Following successful testing, the goal is to integrate this new biomarker and the corresponding AI model into the Noah Labs Ark platform in the future.
