NEARLY a quarter of a million pounds in funding has been granted for research into wearable monitoring technology that can detect heart failure earlier and more effectively.
It comes as figures show that cardiovascular diseases – illnesses affecting the heart and blood vessels – accounted for 27% of deaths in on the island in 2024.
This includes ‘preserved ejection fraction’ (HFpEF) – a difficult to diagnose complication with limited treatment options – that’s the cause of half of heart failure cases.
Now the two-year ISLE HFpEF’ project – a critical trial trying to address it in collaboration between Jersey General Hospital and the University of Oxford – has been granted £225,000.
They will use a wearable-based digital monitoring system to help enable early detection of heart failure and provide ongoing monitoring patient’s reaction to treatment.
It includes a “motion accelerometer patch” that tracks a patient’s physical activity, and a smart ring that monitors physiology data such as heart rate and heart variability.
In addition to this, it aims to provide valuable insight for other research such as the impact of iron in the bloodstream in treating this condition.
The project received the funding through the Impact Jersey ‘Innovation Programme’ which aims to fund projects that turn technology-driven ideas into solutions.
Aaron Henry, cardiology doctor at the Hospital, said: “Being able to use digital wearable technologies has the potential to provide a much more accurate picture of a patient’s situation, ultimately providing better outcomes for them whilst also reducing healthcare costs. This is particularly important in Jersey which, as a small island, faces additional constraints, making innovative approaches like this absolutely essential. This project represents an exciting opportunity for Jersey to become a world leader in digital health technologies and revolutionise how we undertake cardiology trials.”
Tony Moretta, CEO of Digital Jersey said he is “really pleased” that the first grants through the programme have been approved.
It’s the first to be awarded funding through the programme launched last year, alongside another, the Island View initiative, which will receive almost £487,000.
This other project will create a digital dataset for Jersey’s road network and built environment, in acknowledgement that current imagery is outdated and fragmented.
This includes delivering up-to-date high-resolution street-level imagery through a series of comprehensive surveys of the Island’s road network.
It will do this by using a “Jersey Capture Vehicle”, whilst also providing an independent current dataset of 4G and 5G coverage across the island.
The work aims to improve evidence-based decision-making and planning, reduce costs to local architecture, engineering and construction sectors.
Supporting the visitor economy, enhancing transparency in telecom performance and laying groundwork for emerging technologies and infrastructure are also its goals.
The team behind it are all from Jersey with diverse specialist expertise gained off island, including robotics, hardware engineering, data science and software product development.
Mr Moretta added that these projects have “the potential to demonstrate the power of digital technologies” in both “healthcare” and “supporting multi-sector economic growth”.
“We are looking forward to seeing both projects as they evolve over the coming months,” he said in a final note.
