Heart monitoring brought into patient homes through virtual wards

Digital health suppliers Inhealthcare and FibriCheck have expanded their partnership to bring hospital-grade heart monitoring into patients’ homes through NHS virtual ward pathways.

Through the collaboration, which was first announced in September 2023, clinicians can use Inhealthcare’s platform to access FibriCheck’s heart monitoring data via their existing systems.

Bryn Sage, chief executive at Inhealthcare, said: “By integrating our virtual ward expertise with FibriCheck’s proven monitoring technology, we’re making specialist-grade cardiac monitoring accessible through existing NHS pathways.

“This means NHS organisations can implement validated monitoring solutions immediately within their current digital care programmes.”

The partnership is aimed at to addressing growing healthcare pressures, with cardiovascular disease affecting seven million people in the UK and estimated to cost the NHS £7.4bn annually.

As a first step, FibriCheck and Inhealthcare are working with NHS Scotland to integrate FibriCheck into the Connect-Me pathways, which offer services to allow individuals in Scotland to interact and communicate with their healthcare professionals.

Lars Grieten, chief executive at FibriCheck, said: “Our collaboration with Inhealthcare marks a pivotal moment in advancing cardiac care.

“By integrating our smartphone-based technology into NHS virtual ward pathways, we’re enabling clinicians to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient care through devices patients already have in their pockets.

“This approach not only removes barriers to access but also empowers patients to take proactive steps in managing their heart health, helping the NHS detect and treat cardiovascular conditions earlier while optimising resources.”

FibriCheck empowers clinical decision-making by providing longitudinal data through heart rhythm and heart rate measurements. Users can log symptoms alongside each measurement, adding valuable context to the data and enabling symptom-rhythm insights.

Clinical studies reports 97% overall accuracy, with FibriCheck also outperforming consumer wearables, demonstrating significantly higher detection rates for atrial arrhythmias compared to traditional methods.

Inhealthcare has developed more than 150 clinically designed digital health services used by four million patients across the UK during its decade of NHS experience.

The firm supports more than 50 NHS trusts in England, the five health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland and has a national agreement with NHS National Services Scotland to deliver services across the 12 health boards.

In December 2023, Inhealthcare won an NHS contract to scale up virtual wards across Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield to support the delivery of care outside of a hospital setting.

Meanwhile, researchers at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have created an AI model which can flag female patients who are at higher risk of heart disease based on an electrocardiogram.

The British Heart Foundation funded study, published in Lancet Digital Health in March 2025, found that women whose ECGs more closely matched the typical ‘male’ pattern tended to have larger heart chambers and more muscle mass.