iRhythm Technologies Announces NHS Funding After Winning Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award

Company selected from over 500 applicants in first-of-its-kind Digital Health Technologies Pilot

iRhythm Technologies, a leading digital health care solutions company focused on the advancement of cardiac care, has been named a winner of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Award. The announcement was made by Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock at London Tech Week’s Founders Forum HealthTech Summit.

A competitive process run by the Accelerated Access Collaborate (AAC) as part of the NHS AI Lab – in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) – the award aims to benefit patients by combining the power of artificial intelligence with the expertise of the NHS to improve health and care outcomes.

iRhythm will utilize the funding to trial its Zio service in selected sites – comprising trusts, CCG’s and networks – across the UK. Throughout the three-year program, clinical, pathway and economic outcomes will be monitored and evaluated in order to inform any future commissioning decisions around the adoption of Zio within the NHS.

Zio by iRhythm is a small, discreet and easy-to-use cardiac monitoring service, used to detect a range of arrhythmias quickly and accurately. The patch-like device can be fitted at home and provides uninterrupted, comprehensive monitoring of a patient’s heartbeats as they go about their daily lives. Underpinned by artificial intelligence, it detects arrhythmias, at the first time of asking, saving lives and ensuring less pressure is placed upon NHS resources.

Commenting on the win, Justin Hall, GM and VP EMEA at iRhythm Technologies said, “The UK is home to some of the most cutting-edge, life-changing medical technologies. However, it is still taking years for medical devices to go from clinical trial to wide-spread adoption, meaning neither patients nor practitioners are seeing the many benefits of these innovations. We’re absolutely delighted to have been chosen as part of the pilot to change that.

“Around 1.2 million people in the UK are registered with atrial fibrillation, with nearly half a million predicted to have AF undiagnosed. When treating these serious cardiac conditions, accurate and timely diagnoses can mean the difference between life and death. This funding is a step in the right direction in accelerating our Zio service to ensure that people have access to fast, critical care as and when they need it.”

Four phases of award are available to support AI solutions from initial feasibility to evaluation within NHS and social care settings. Phase 4 – of which iRhythm has been selected – is intended to identify AI technologies that need more evidence to merit large-scale commissioning or deployment. The AAC will work with NHS sites to support their adoption of these technologies, and stress test and evaluate them within routine clinical or operational pathways to determine their efficacy and accuracy, as well as their clinical and economic impact.

The AI in Health and Care Award forms a key part of the AAC’s ambition to establish a globally leading testing infrastructure for healthcare innovation in the UK.

About iRhythm Technologies, Inc.
iRhythm is a leading digital health care company redefining the way cardiac arrhythmias are clinically diagnosed. The company combines wearable biosensor devices worn for up to 14 days and cloud-based data analytics with powerful proprietary algorithms that distill data from millions of heartbeats into clinically actionable information. The company believes improvements in arrhythmia detection and characterization have the potential to change clinical management of patients.