Pulsify Medical
Game Changer in Non-invasive Continuous Heart Monitoring

It is an eye opener to know that cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounts for nearly 18 million deaths per year globally. Most of the patients suffer from heart attacks, strokes, and congenital heart disease that cause insufficient cardiac performance, such as low stroke volume; the amount of blood ejected by the left ventricle with each contraction. Given the severity of CVD, it is paramount to monitor cardiac performance on a safe, accurate, and ongoing basis, no matter where the patient is. However, currently available solutions, such as invasive catheters (only within hospital) and handheld ultrasound probes (only for short-term measurements) are fundamentally limited in value for patients at continued risk.

Addressing this unmet market need is Pulsify Medical’s novel ultrasound monitoring patch. As a spin-off of imec (Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre) and University Leuven, Pulsify Medical was founded in 2019 and is developing a highly practical, affordable, and non-invasive solution for long-term, continuous monitoring of cardiac performance. “We’re not just building an alternative ultrasound handheld probe or catheter, but unlocking breakthrough technology with an ultrasound patch for continuous monitoring of cardiac performance in the hospital and at home, providing critical heart performance parameters not accessible with ECG based patches,” says Iwan van Vijfeijken, CEO of Pulsify Medical.

Pulsify’s ultrasound patch is a round-the-clock, comforting thought for patients because it allows them movement—be it walking, sitting, or exercising, with complete freedom. It can be attached to chests of different sizes, for hours, days, or even weeks, until the patient’s cardiac health becomes stable.

These smart patches discreetly capture cardiac data and wirelessly transmit them to the hospital, wherever the patient happens to be.

The company’s patch device is a better alternative to the conventional handheld probe that allows only spot measurements, limiting physicians from measuring cardiac performance over the long term. The patch doesn’t require the extensive training and expertise needed for use of a probe, and produces more reliable cardiac output information.The Pulsify patch allows physicians to perform longitudinal trend line analysis. They can compare the relevant cardiac performance of the patient across different parts of the day and make better clinical decisions. What’s more, the patch can be attached easily to the patient’s body without any training.

The inherent benefits of the Pulsify patch do not stop there. It helps provide additional insight into possible cardiac compensation mechanisms and functioning. In the future, this could allow physicians to anticipate heart failure and administer preventive care in earlier. The Pulsify patch aims to become a rescuer even for ward patients with acute cardiac shocks, by quickly displaying the cardiac performance. This is also highly helpful for post-operative patients with instable cardiac performance and patients who suffer from cardiac toxicity—with the risk of declining cardiac performance—due to for example chemotherapy.

Above and beyond all these salient features, the cornerstone of the Pulsify patch lies in its home application, enabling patients to leave the hospital as early as possible while still being monitored. This fits in with the major trend of medical wearables for remote cardiac monitoring, which is socially beneficial. Currently, Pulsify is focused on deploying patches with critical warning systems to alert hospitals wirelessly. As well, the company envisions offering flexible and efficient battery solutions for the patch.

Going forward, Pulsify anticipates a major milestone in the first-inhuman clinical trial of the ultrasound patch technology backed by unique software IP. After Series B funding, the company aims to bring the device into the market in Europe and the U.S. Following FDA clearance, Pulsify plans to open new application domains beyond cardiac diagnostics, and explore possibilities in long-term monitoring of for example the bladder, lungs, and muscle tissue.