Modern F1 racing cars are networked, connected and intelligent machines that have hundreds of sensors. These sensors deliver billions of data points that are analyzed and help cars outperform their competition – just like Lewis Hamilton did in his dramatic victory at Silverstone!
But what does this have to do with better healthcare? Well, one piece of technology that is changing the way healthcare is delivered is ballistocardiography combined with artificial intelligence (AI).
Ballistocardiography or BCG was developed in 1877 by JW Gordon which was inspired by seismology and was primarily developed to study and monitor heart activity by incorporating sensors used in scales. But it had its challenges and eventually faded from use. On top of that, the EKG was developed in 1903 and comes with the advantage of much better, reproducible results. But today, almost a century later, BCG is back, enhanced with AI.
BCG Revival in line with AI, today:
The need of the hour now is continuous monitoring without compliance or additional effort – and contactless BCG has this capability for a whole range of applications.
Ballistocardiograph (BCG) is a measure of the ballistic forces generated by your heart. This means it measures the downward movement of blood through your descending aorta and produces upward recoil, moving your body upwards, ever so slightly, with each heartbeat. It’s a non-invasive method that helps create a graphic representation of your body’s repetitive movements resulting from the sudden ejection of blood into your blood vessels with each heartbeat.
This technology has been further refined by combining ECG and BCG. An EKG measures the electrical activity of your heart and is used to detect problems including heart attacks, arrhythmias, etc. In this case, BCG is a non-invasive and non-contact way to monitor your heart activity by measuring the mechanical activity of your heart using piezoelectric crystals. And in the most nascent form of the technology, these crystals can be placed under your bed and record mechanical activity such as your heart rate, heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing pattern, and other subtle and gross body movements. All these mechanical signals can be filtered to obtain the necessary signals for almost all parts of your body, which can be recorded, analyzed and marked appropriately.
BCG is on the verge of replacing invasive methods for cardiac measurements and could be a breakthrough in non-invasive monitoring. By adding to this the use of algorithms, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, doctors can create a protocol that can help detect and analyze abnormal heart rhythms, breathing rates, rhythms and sleep patterns. In addition, the data recorded by the BCG can also detect the patient’s deterioration earlier in terms of heart failure, obstructive sleep apnea, Parkinson’s tremors – helping to not only catch these signs earlier, but also prevent and successfully treat these diseases, reducing deaths.
Why did BCG disappear in the past:
After BCG was discovered, it was the focus of intense research in the 1940s until the 1980s, until it disappeared. A few reasons for this include:
- There was a lack of standard measurement techniques, resulting in a lack of standardized interpretation protocols.
- Lack of understanding of the exact physiological origin of the BCG waveform.
- High sensitivity to noise
- At that time, BCG could not make an accurate clinical diagnosis of myocardial infarction, angina pectoris and coronary heart disease because it was not so specific.
But what really stopped the use of BCG was the dawn of ultrasound and EKG techniques that were non-invasive for cardiac and hemodynamic diagnosis.
Predictive Healthcare – The Future of BCG and AI in Healthcare:
The future is promising for BCG, especially when combined with AI. In fact, research on how BCG can be used to identify and possibly predict diseases such as high blood pressure, sleep apnea, heart failure, respiratory failure, seizures, and a whole galaxy of other diseases is gaining ground.
In fact, studies have found that combining the use of BCG with other diagnostic methods can also help doctors see how Progressing CVD and how intervention works. The technology could also help chemotherapy patients and their treating doctors gauge how well the treatment is working and, more importantly, could be used to avoid cardiotoxicity and cardiovascular risk during cancer treatment.
Overall, integrating ECG with BCG can be a game changer. Imagine all the health data that can be collected and analyzed using machine learning algorithms – allowing healthcare to become predictive rather than reactive. With the advent of technology, the day is not far. We can detect problems early, patients can be brought in on time and accidents can be prevented. We all know that prevention is better than cure, but early detection can help with better outcomes and long-term results.
Rebuttal
The views expressed above are the author’s own.
END OF ARTICLE