Springs Medical in Daylesford and Kyneton has united with medical partners across the globe for a world-first study that adopts artificial intelligence to detect heart failure.
The clinic is funded via its share of a $2 million grant provided by the Medical Research Fund of Australia to trial portable AI-guided devices developed from U.S. and Singaporean-based companies over the next four years and screen patients to detect the condition in its early stages.
Professor Simon Stewart from the University of Notre Dame in Western Australia, is leading the project titled, Practice Nurses to Augment the Clinical Evaluation and Care of people at high-risk of Heart Failure (PANACEA-HF).
“It (heart failure) is the number one cause of hospitalisation for people aged over 65,” he said.
“It exerts a massive burden on the health system and a late prognosis is worse than many forms of cancer.
“More than half a million Australians are walking around with a failing heart and the first time they know it, typically, is when they are hospitalised.”
Heart failure is when the heart does not beat or function normally. Current systems in place to detect it require expensive equipment and specialised doctors not available in general practices across the country. According to Professor Stewart, this is the reason for late and unpreventable diagnosis and requires urgent attention to support Australia’s increasing life expectancy.
“We are at historical highs in terms of people living with high blood pressure, poor diets and excess weight,” he said.
“You could be living and walking around, not realising you have a heart problem.”
The project’s aim is to make early diagnoses of heart failure a regularity by simplifying the process with AI technology and readily available tools such as iPads. This has enabled nurses to lead the operation and home visits viable. If successful, Professor Stewart and his team will present their findings to the federal government with hopes to have the process funded in every medical practice across the country.
Dr James Smith, one of the clinic’s directors and the project’s local principal investigator, admitted that the primary care nurses like Simone Barry, Jenny Elliot, and Kym Evans – who travelled to Canberra to present this project at Parliament House – were the true pioneers of the project.
“These guys are the real heroes of the story. They are doing all the work and hopefully it will become a nurse-led project nationally,” Dr Smith said.
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association has also partnered with the study and ready to upscale the training of nurses country-wide if the results are positive.
The project is looking for at least 400 patients over 60 years old with one risk for heart failure and not yet received a diagnosis. This includes those with high blood pressure, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, or any other significant heart disease.
People wanting to participate in the study can contact Springs Medical in Daylesford or Kyneton on 5348 2227.
