Viscero

Challenge

An arrhythmia is an abnormal heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications. There are limited options available to doctors assessing patients. The most common is a Holter monitor, but these systems are restrictive to wear, and typically only offer a 24- or 48-hour recording window. Longer-term solutions are intrusive and require the patient to be placed under anesthetic to get them inserted. 

How might we create an accurate, unintrusive, and non-invasive solution that could monitor you for weeks or even months?

Approach

Our solution is Viscero, a revolutionary approach to ECG monitoring - keeping our hearts healthy. Sensory technology is integrated seamlessly into a simple vest, capturing and communicating diagnostic quality data effortlessly. In order to get to this point, the team needed to address and overcome a series of challenges. 

Dry electrodes are positioned away from the chest to more peripheral locations, while maintaining consistent compression points. Ingeniously, the brain of Viscero is the size of a matchbox and fits easily into a small pocket on the t-shirt; you can take it out to recharge or put the t-shirt in the washing machine without any trouble. This pod also has an onboard accelerometer and gyroscope. Data is combined with any recorded heart signals to provide the clinician with a fuller picture of the circumstances surrounding an event. For instance, had the wearer stood up after a long period of sitting, or were they active for a sustained period leading up to an arrhythmia event?

This is significantly different from consumer devices that also record ECG signals. These only provide limited recording fidelity and intermittent monitoring, whereas Viscero can continually monitor people’s hearts for weeks or even months.

Diagnostic quality data collected from the vest is presented on a doctor-patient dashboard. Healthcare professionals can access data via an AI enabled dashboard that segments recordings into potential arrhythmia events. The data can then be triaged for cardiologists to review, saving hours of scrolling through ECG recordings. Patients, meanwhile, can correspond with their doctors via a specially created app.

Impact

Viscero has been named in FastCompany’s World Changing Ideas 2022, and has been awarded the prestigious Red Dot Award, iF Design Award, and Good Design Chicago Award. Patients can now run for the bus, hug their children, and unwind on the sofa, without giving Viscero a second thought. It’s a medical-grade, 6-lead ECG monitoring system you can forget about. Viscero has the potential to drive a more connected and positive healthcare experience for both doctors and patients alike – a breakthrough in wearable tech.