What You Should Know:
- Geisinger, an integrated health care delivery and coverage organization serving members in central and northeastern Pennsylvania forms a strategic collaboration with Bodyport, a virtual care company focused on heart failure to launch remote heart failure monitoring program.
- Together, Geisinger and Bodypart will develop and implement a fluid-guided care pathway for heart failure. The pathway will augment Geisinger’s existing remote heart failure management program by incorporating the FDA-cleared Bodyport Cardiac Scale and Fluid Alerts.
Fluid-Guided Care Pathway
As the buildup of fluid is a key indicator of worsening HF, the goal of the program is to operationalize a fluid-guided care pathway that provides an earlier warning of changes in status to improve care delivery and clinical outcomes for HF patients using the Bodyport Cardiac Scale. Similar in form to a conventional weight scale, the Bodyport Cardiac Scale is a physical platform with embedded sensors that non-invasively measure metrics of heart function and fluid status in the same step patients take to weigh themselves each day. The Bodyport Fluid Alert incorporates changes in weight, fluid levels, and pulse rate measured through the Cardiac Scale to remotely notify care teams of changes in a patient’s health status.
This kind of noninvasive remote monitoring can help care teams proactively provide medical interventions to patients to avoid worsening heart failure events and the associated costs of preventable hospitalizations. The data gathered by the Cardiac Scale also informs self-care insights provided through Bodyport’s user-friendly patient app.
“Geisinger’s approach to caring for patients with heart failure is built on incorporating leading-edge treatments and solutions,” said Vishal Mehra, MD, system chief of quality and value for Geisinger’s Heart Institute. “Based on our common commitment to preventive care and the successes we’ve already realized together in detecting heart failure events earlier and more accurately, we look forward to assessing the efficacy of the Bodyport model in a more prospective manner. We’re glad to be continuing our work with Bodyport in hopes of building even more value into the care we provide for our patients.”
12-Month Pilot Program
Over the 12-month pilot phase of the program, approximately 200 of Geisinger’s adult patients diagnosed with HF will be provided the Cardiac Scale for daily home use. The measurement data from the scale will be automatically uploaded to the Geisinger medical team, who will be notified of any alerts generated and will reach out to the patient to remotely assess status, provide coaching on HF risk factors, and determine whether to activate or escalate treatment. The program builds on the success of an earlier study conducted by Geisinger and Bodyport that evaluated the efficacy of the Fluid Alert to detect worsening heart failure in 100 Geisinger patients with HF. The earlier study showed the Bodyport Fluid Alert was able to detect HF events earlier, more accurately, and with fewer false alerts than weight-based monitoring alone, the current standard of care for HF patients.
