The AF Association – Healthcare Pioneers Report 2018 includes 38 articles describing ways of finding patients with undiagnosed AF using, for example smartphones or simple pulse checks, methods to ensure that adequate assessment is undertaken to define underlying causes and potential complications, treatment techniques involving antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress the development of AF, anticoagulant drug therapy to prevent AF-related stroke, left atrial ablation (a technique to try and prevent further attacks of AF), and more.
The national roll out of mobile ECG devices by Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) was born out of a system-wide procurement initiative to promote the uptake of a digital technology (mobile ECG). This was a novel approach to facilitate innovation adoption which prompted the AHSN Network to commission an independent evaluation of the roll out, at AHSN level, to understand its effectiveness, and in particular what can be learned about: the environments in which the devices are most effective, what characterises an effective implementation package, the impact on the market place, patients (through AF detection) and providers; and the health economic aspects of this type of programme.