TORONTO, ONTARIO – CardioComm Solutions, Inc. (TSX VENTURE: EKG) (“CardioComm” or the “Company”), a leading global medical provider of consumer heart monitoring and electrocardiogram (“ECG”) acquisition and management software solutions, confirms the start of a pharmacy-based ECG monitoring service to screen for prolonged QT interval for the prevention of drug induced sudden cardiac death.
Under the Company’s Allied Health Professional Partner Program, the HeartCheck™ CardiBeat and GEMS™ Mobile Smartphone app will be used to collect ECGs recorded by patients under the direction of a pharmacist. Recorded ECGs will be passed from the GEMS™ Mobile app to the Company’s SMART Monitoring ECG reading service to be triaged. All findings will be sent directly to the pharmacist and any submitted ECG recordings that show a presence of prolonged QT interval or any other cardiac arrhythmia will be flagged so that the pharmacist may then follow up as needed with the patient’s treating physician.
Pharmacists plan to run ECG tests on patients when picking up a prescription. All QT and QTc interval findings will be kept on file with the goal of recording QT measurements for any patient with known cardiac issues and starting any new medication known to influence the QT interval. “As polypharmacy analysis becomes more prevalent in a pharmacist’s daily tasks, the use of the HeartCheck™ CardiBeat device will allow staff to quickly measure the patient’s QT/QTc and make a clinical judgment as per the safety of the prescriptions being dispensed”, states pharmacist K. Manoukian.
QT interval prolongation is a recognized adverse drug reaction and risk factor for torsades de pointes (TdP), a fatal arrhythmia that can result in sudden cardiac death. While rare, the severity of TdP makes QT prolongation a serious concern when prescribing medications.
Pharmacists have a legal and professional responsibility to evaluate/mitigate medication adverse and serious adverse event risk factors and are the final decision makers in dispensing or not dispensing medications. The surface ECG is the only way to confirm or rule out the presence of a prolonged QT interval. The HeartCheck™ CardiBeat provides a useful tool as QT prolongation can now be easily, quickly and cost effectively obtained in community pharmacies and be compared to well established normal duration ranges. Without an ECG sudden cardiac death due to a prolonged QT interval may be the first and only evidence of the disease. Prior to the release of CardioComm’s ECG screening technologies, QT interval prolongation ECG screening was not available outside of the hospital setting.
Listings of medications known to cause TdP through acquired QT syndrome prolongation in healthy people (crediblemeds.org, sads.org.uk and heartcentre.ca) contain more than 100 common medications, many of which are dispensed by pharmacists. These include common antibiotics, medications to treat yeast infections, diuretics, anti-arrhythmia heart medications, and antidepressant and antipsychotic medications. Additionally, COVID-19 infection, a history of cardiac arrest and cardiovascular disease, age and women on heart medications are also known to increase the risk for cause acquired QT interval prolongation.
Through the screening service CardioComm will earn revenue from a per ECG QT interval triaging service fee. With the program now launched in Quebec, the Company will next look to the introduction of the QT interval ECG screening services in pharmacies and physician practices in other provinces.
To learn more about CardioComm’s products and for further updates regarding HeartCheck™ ECG device integrations, please visit the Company’s websites at
www.cardiocommsolutions.com and www.theheartcheck.com.
