Cardiac ultrasound AI specialist Caption Health has launched an in-home ultrasound service to provide low cost cardiac tests. The new service, which will be provided through a partnership with US home health provider Portamedic Inc, aims to transform the diagnosis and intervention rates of cardiac disease in the United States from costly specialist hospitals into everyday settings that are available across the board to most Americans.

At present, 38 percent of Americans receive their first diagnosis of cardiac problems when in an acute emergency hospital setting after having been hospitalised for cardiac failure, according to a 2021 study published in the medical journal Circulation. This is despite 46 percent of those patients having displayed symptoms of coronary or cardiac failure in the six months prior to their hospitalisation. Centralisation of cardiac ultrasound machines in acute hospitals has limited diagnosis to certain groups in society, and general practitioners have often classified cardiac symptoms such as fatigue or shortness of breath as signs of ageing. The result is that early intervention which could prevent cardiac and coronary attacks and deaths are prevented through lack of early diagnosis.

Caption Care is designed to make available to health providers, payers, and value-based care organisations the opportunity for greater reach into their communities by covering the last mile of access to ultrasounds for members. There is a significant and growing need for diagnostic-quality point-of-care ultrasound, not only for those with symptoms, but also to guide people at risk of developing heart disease to early interventions and improve outcomes. Caption Care addresses this with convenient, cost-effective cardiac ultrasound at scale to identify heart disease earlier, help prevent avoidable hospitalisations, and support improved outcomes.

“We are changing the approach to the world’s leading cause of death, especially for the underserved. Better assessing cardiovascular and heart failure risk begins with creating affordable access to basic imaging of the heart. We have partnered with Portamedic and launched Caption Care to bring the most advanced AI-enabled technology into the homes of everyday Americans, to urgently address the soaring¹ risk of heart disease,” said Steve Cashman, Caption Health’s Chief Executive Officer. “Given current heart failure guidelines and existing CMS payment models, Medicare Advantage plans will now have a scalable service to help them assess and manage the cardiovascular health for their millions of at-risk members.”

“Portamedic has been a leader in mobile in-home services for 50 years through a network of over 4,000 technicians and 100 field offices across all 50 states, giving us trusted access to hundreds of thousands of households every year. Through our participation in Caption Care, we can now play a proactive role in helping combat the largest public health threat facing this country, and we’re delighted to be stepping up to the challenge,” said Jim Fritz, President and Chief Operating Officer of Portamedic. “With healthcare increasingly moving out of the hospital and into the home, Caption Health and Portamedic are well-positioned with our market-leading capabilities to bring ultrasound to people in the most comfortable and convenient settings.”