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Cranfield, UK, 13th September 2024, Written by Gareth Jones –
This year the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress was held at ExCeL London, in the heart (no pun intended) of London’s historic docklands.
Nearly 32,000 visitors attended the Congress, which saw close to 4,500 abstracts presented by delegates from over 90 countries. Reflecting the global scale of cardiovascular disease burden, 5 of the top 10 countries in terms of abstract submissions were from outside Europe: China, the United States, Japan, Korea, and Australia.
The general response from vendor’s booths was positive, though opinions varied as to whether the attendance was back to pre-Covid levels (according to official ESC statistics, there were still nearly 20,000 fewer attendees in 2024 than seen in 2019).
This insight delves into the key themes and topics discussed whilst at the show, highlighting their relevance to the latest advances in cardiac care.
New clinical guidelines for Atrial Fibrillation
Four new clinical guidelines were introduced at the congress: Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), Hypertension, Peripheral Artery Disease and Aortic Disease, and Chronic Coronary Syndromes.
In the case of AFib, an ECG remains the standard recommendation as the first point in the diagnostic pathway. However, new recommendations include the use of a transthoracic echocardiogram in patients with an AFib diagnosis where this will guide treatment decisions.
The new guidelines also place an increased emphasis on a shared-care approach, with education directed specifically to patients, family members, caregivers, and healthcare professionals recommended. This included the publication of patient-specific AFib guidelines. The new guidelines also highlight the importance of monitoring and managing comorbidities, aligning with industry trends that have seen the development of ambulatory monitoring devices which include ECG, alongside SpO2, body temperature, pulse rate, and other parameters.
AI takes centre stage
Unsurprisingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was one of the major topics of both official and unofficial conversation at ESC 2024. GE HealthCare, the largest vendor in the traditional ECG market according to Signify Research’s recent global report, reported tremendous interest in a series of AI for ECG workshops it was running.
Elsewhere, major European AI ECG vendors including B-Secur, Idoven, Cardiomatics, Medicalgorithmics, and Powerful Medical were all in attendance and announcing new products, regulatory clearances, and research findings.
Powerful Medical presented results from studies on its AI-Powered ECG Model in Detecting Acute Coronary Occlusion in Myocardial Infarction, and its smartphone-based AI model to detect left ventricular systolic dysfunction on a 12-lead ECG. B-Secur, fresh from its recent FDA approval for its HeartKey suite of AI-based ECG signal improving algorithms, presented the results of a study evaluating the feasibility of upper-arm ECG monitoring. Polish AI-ECG vendor Cardiomatics announced the release of version 6 of its Holter AI-ECG interpretation platform, which includes enhanced features for clinicians.
From discussions with vendors and clinicians, and the spate of announcements and coverage via official ESC news and other channels, AI will be a crucial aid in alleviating the ever-growing global cardiovascular disease burden. Naturally, a healthy degree of scepticism from clinicians will need to be met with further clinical evidence, while business models will need to adapt to ensure long-term returns on investment from both providers and vendors.
The greater deployment in AI for Diagnostic ECG will also bring a sharp focus on issues around data storage and security. Many countries currently require data to be stored in domestically based cloud infrastructure; something highlighted by vendors as being a significant impediment to the scaling up of AI deployments.
Ambulatory cardiology continues to evolve
The digital health stage, and accompanying exhibition area, was a hive of activity as vendors sought to highlight product developments and partnerships. One of the biggest announcements related to this occurred on the first day of ESC, with iRhythm announcing the launch of its Zio monitor and long-term continuous (LTCM) ECG monitoring service in Austria, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.
Numerous ambulatory ECG vendors were in attendance, with ample evidence of the multiple partnerships developing in the market on show. For example, Semdatex, a German remote heart-failure monitoring company, was sharing a stand with Biotronik. Semdatex’s remote heart failure monitoring platform utilises Biotronik’s external Holter monitor and Implantable Cardiac Monitoring (ICM) devices. The service also incorporates Cardiomatics AI-ECG algorithms.
The ambulatory ECG market looks set for further disruption with the development of 12-lead ECG-capable portable devices, with Swiss-based diagnostic cardiology vendor Schiller introducing medilog FD, a 12-lead capable Holter monitoring device with a 5-day battery life. This follows the recent FDA approval, and subsequent granting of Category III reimbursement codes, for AliveCor’s Kardia 12L, another 12-lead-capable portable ECG device.
Another vendor at ESC doing interesting things in this part of the market is German-based CardioSecur. The company’s app-based 12L ECG analysis solution consists of a 4-electrode connection, which plugs into an iPhone, and an iOS app. While its solution can be bought directly by consumers or used by clinicians, it is particularly suited for use in remote locations and is widely used in the global airline industry.
However, in keeping with the changing dynamics of the diagnostic cardiology market, CardioSecur used the ESC platform to announce the launch of its news CardioSecur Pro-Pace product. CardioSecur Pro-Pace is a 12+ lead ECG system based on vector-cardiography, designed to assist clinicians with pacemaker implantation procedures outside of EP labs.
Horses for courses
If there is one thing that all in attendance at ESC 2024 can agree on, it is the scale of the challenge ahead. This will only be reinforced by the shocking recent findings of a UK government report, which found that mortality rates from cardiovascular conditions in the UK have actually risen continually since 2010. What ESC has yet again highlighted is that there will be no silver bullets in Cardiology. However, the range of technologies on show, the plethora of research initiatives underway, and increased emphasis on comorbidities and preventative treatment, offer up a much-needed dose of optimism.
Related Research
Signify Research recently published its ‘Diagnostic Cardiology – World – 2024’ report, the third iteration of its global market analysis of the Diagnostic Cardiology Market. The report provides a quantitative overview of the market, including 5-year forecasts, and analysis of the key regional market drivers and barriers. Signify Research also published ‘AI in Diagnostic Cardiology ECG – World – 2023’, in December 2023. The report provides an in-depth, qualitative overview of the key technological and market trends, including detailed profiles of key vendors in the market.
About The Author
Gareth joined Signify Research in 2021 as Senior Market Analyst in the Digital Health team, where he covered emerging markets including Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) and Ambulatory Diagnostic Cardiology. In 2023, Gareth joined Signify’s Clinical Care team where, his coverage areas include Diagnostic Cardiology and Patient Monitors.
About the Clinical Care Team
The clinical care team provides market intelligence and detailed insights on the clinical care equipment and IT markets. Our areas of coverage include patient monitoring, diagnostic cardiology, infusion pumps, ventilators, anaesthesia devices, and high-acuity IT. Our reports provide a data-centric and global outlook of each market with granular country-level insights. Our research process blends primary data collected from in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals and technology vendors, to provide a balanced and objective view of the market.
About Signify Research
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