HeartWare

Spring Semester Title Slide

Final Kickstarter video + demo: https://youtu.be/v_okyEbtFRo

30 second Kickstarter video: https://youtu.be/DXe69CXmav4

Abstract (final, updated for ESE Demo Day and SEAS Competition):

We envision a stethoscope that is both wearable and continuously monitoring. In tackling these vectors, we are allowed unique opportunities that cardiologists never reach. Specifically, we start with the problem of heart murmurs during intense physical activity. Adolescents experience arrhythmia and murmurs during exercise, and the signifiers which indicate the problem quickly attenuate as the body cools down from exercise. Subsequently, the only solution is to constantly listen to the heart, monitoring for any potential sudden changes that may need the attention of the nurse.

Our long-term vision for Heartware extends to a platform for entirely new insights for physicians and data scientists. We utilize heart murmurs to prove functionality of digitized heart sounds and analysis. Eventually, just as recorded voice catalyzed new research in NLP, so too will recorded heart sounds. Future ideas include allowing researchers access into the raw heartbeat sounds on a per-person trial basis (as opposed to group studies as it's currently done), exploiting the unique characteristics of heartbeats for biometric security and automated cataloging, and regular at-home check-ins for the elderly and the young. None of these possibilities are currently available with any consumer or medical electronic products. We see Heartware as a sincere attempt in building an entirely new hardware platform, as Apple did with the App Store.