The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is an improvement in care for heart failure patients after hospitalization. Heart failure (HF) is a significant cause of medical morbidity, mortality, and high health care costs. In 2012, 1 million hospital stays were for heart failure in the United States. Approximately twenty-five percent of recently discharged heart failure patients are readmitted within 30 days, resulting in an additional healthcare cost burden of $2.7B per year. The proposed technology would provide an early pre-symptomatic alert of a worsening condition to enable proactive medication and/or other therapeutic care adjustments before recently discharged HF patients become symptomatic and are potentially re-hospitalized.
This I-Corps project aims to improve monitoring, specifically self-monitoring in the home, for heart failure-impacted individuals. The technology allows for daily serial monitoring and tracking of NT-proBNP biomarker levels along with other analytes like Troponin, CysC, and Serum Sodium. A smartphone-connected, daily finger stick blood test would measure, track, and report circulating NT-proBNP and related cardiac biomarker levels to a healthcare provider. The proposed technology would use fluorescence detection and microfluidics along with smart-connected health features to allow healthcare providers to monitor patient status after discharge, providing an early pre-symptomatic alert of a worsening condition to enable proactive medication and/or other therapeutic care adjustments before re-hospitalization is required.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
