NIH Director Calls Scripps Research "Amazing Stuff"

In the world of medical research, there are few endorsements more coveted than the one from the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, MD.

The Scripps Translational Science Institute (STSI) received such a nod when Dr. Collins posted a commentary on his NIH blog about the institute’s recent study comparing the ZIO Patch to the Holter monitor for detecting potentially dangerous heart arrhythmia.

Directed by Scripps Chief Academic Officer Eric Topol, MD, STSI is a NIH-sponsored consortium led by Scripps Health in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute. Through this innovative partnership, Scripps is leading the effort to translate the latest wireless and genetic medical technologies into high-quality, cost-effective treatments for patients.

The ZIO Patch is a small adhesive wireless device worn on the chest for up to two weeks. STSI researchers found that the patch did a better job detecting abnormal heart rhythms than the Holter monitor, which is typically used for 24 hours and has been the standard of care for more than 50 years.

The results have the potential to change the standard of care for tracking electrical heart activity in ambulatory patients.

Dr. Collins called the study “pretty amazing stuff.”

He predicted that devices such as ZIO hold the key to the future of medicine.

“Some of the most dramatic leaps in mHealth (short for mobile health) will arise when we have small, inexpensive wireless devices with sensors that can monitor your physiology—heart rate, blood pressure, blood sodium and glucose levels, breathing patterns, brain waves, and so on—and then transmit those data to your physician, who can then take actions that may spare you a trip to the hospital or even save your life,” he wrote.

Read Dr. Collins’ blog post here: Move over Holter? Heart Monitoring in the mHealth Era