Light-Hearted AI is a touch free cardiovascular disease diagnostic and monitoring device which aims to revolutionise cardiac screening.
- Innovation aims to facilitate community-based prevention, to support the NHS Long Term Plan in early detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
- Medical device and AI software can diagnose heart conditions in asymptomatic patients in 60 seconds.
- Innovation uses AI to provide a more affordable cardiac diagnostic solution to the NHS, compared to current technologies.
Dr Lucrezia Cester is an AI Engineer and Clinical Scientist, who co-founded Light-hearted AI. After taking part in the Health Innovation Placement (HIP) pilot facilitated by the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme and Health Education England, Lucrezia applied and successfully enrolled as a cohort 7 Clinical Entrepreneur.
Founded in 2023, Light-Hearted AI is a medical device which aims to improve the detection of heart conditions, to offer a faster, more accurate, and affordable alternative solution to existing technologies within the NHS and private sector.
7.6 million people are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK*
The World Health Organisation announced that 17.9 million people died from cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in 2019, representing 32% of all global deaths. In the UK, it is estimated that more than half of the population will develop a heart or circulatory condition in their lifetime, with 2.3 million people currently living with coronary heart disease (CHD).
During her PHD studies in artificial intelligence (AI) and biomedical technologies, Dr Lucrezia Cester saw the impact of cardiovascular conditions on the NHS. With an aging population, and the rate of heart disease set to rise, the NHS identified cardiovascular disease as a clinical priority as the single biggest area where the NHS can save lives over the next 10 years.
“The NHS will help prevent up to 150,000 heart attacks, strokes, and dementia cases over the next 10 years. We will work with our partners to improve community first response and build defibrillator networks to improve survival from out of hospital cardiac arrest.”
The NHS Long Term Plan*
Dr Cester found that the current approach to identifying cardiac diseases was reactive, meaning that a patient is usually symptomatic before they are referred to a cardiologist. This approach misses the opportunity for early intervention, and often presents itself as a distressing visit to the emergency room after a cardiac incident. In addition, poor management of heart disease results in patients suffering from increased hospital admissions, poorer quality of life and deterioration from secondary complications. This has led to an increase pressure on the NHS and an estimated £9 billion annual cost relating to heart and circulatory diseases. *
After meeting co-founder Dilip Rajeswari, Machine Learning engineer and DeepTech Entrepreneur at Entrepreneur First, a start-up accelerator, they explored how better management of heart conditions positively impacts patients, healthcare professionals and the wider healthcare system. They saw that early diagnosis and management reduces the requirement for more complex care interventions, meaning patients can live longer and more fulfilling lives. For example, many heart conditions can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol. These risk factors contribute towards high cholesterol, high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes, which link directly with heart attacks and strokes. Tackling these risk factors early by motivating people to adopt and sustain healthy behaviours can prevent illness or premature death.
Light-Hearted commenced development of a medical device to aid in the detection of heart conditions, the device works by shining a laser at individuals and capturing the reflected light with an ultrafast camera. Their AI-powered platform then decodes this data, gathering information on the patient’s blood flow and allows the team to determine if the individual has a healthy heart or not. The technology is proven to detect previously unseen biomarkers, through clothing and from a distance, all within 60 seconds. The platform then draws from historical patient data to create a diagnostic report without the need for expert intervention.
The team aim for the medical device to support primary care and community-based prevention, allowing GPs to screen patients for signs of heart disease in local surgeries, rather than having to be referred to hospitals for expensive tests like ECGs. In addition, the intervention aims to support the NHS in reducing waiting lists and providing a monetary saving through early intervention, allowing resources to be freed up for investment, research, and improvement of clinical services.
Light-Hearted is dedicated to preventing 10 million heart-related deaths by 2030.
The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has supported Dr Lucrezia Cester by providing access to a network of over 1,000 like-minded NHS entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. The connections have acted as a structure of support, promoting problem-solving, perseverance and invaluable knowledge sharing.
The programme gave her a platform to promote change and improvement within the healthcare system and equipped her with the skills and knowledge to succeed as an innovator.
“The NHS CEP has instilled in me the courage to pursue my dream of further developing my innovation, transitioning it from the lab benches straight to the patient’s bedside. It also provided me with an opportunity to be part of a community of like-minded individuals, all unified by a singular mission: to bring innovation to the NHS. Being in this network opened access to a wealth of knowledge, primarily because many of its members had already encountered and overcome challenges like mine at various stages. The Pit Stops further equipped me with insights on viewing my innovation from a commercial perspective, which is of paramount importance to NHS procurers when considering the deployment of new innovations. Without this crucial knowledge that the NHS CEP has offered, advancing my project would have been significantly more challenging.
To those clinicians teeming with brilliance and considering a similar path, remember: the NHS greatly benefits from innovators who firsthand encounter and understand the challenges on the ground.”
Dr Lucrezia Cester
Looking to the future
The Light-Hearted team achieved joint investment from Entrepreneur First and SOSV HAX in Autumn 2023, and their immediate focus is on developing their lab minimum viable product, into a market-ready product. Concurrently, they are conducting NHS clinical trials to validate the efficacy of the device. Upon validation, the team will work towards obtaining regulatory approvals to move towards commercialisation.
To date, the project has progressed through 2 pilot studies, and it is currently being trialled for clinical use in Dorset, supported by the NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board.
“If you’re an NHS cardiologist, Primary Care practitioner, procurer, or a clinical scientist with expertise in data science, we’d be thrilled to hear from you. Your insights and collaboration could be invaluable to our mission.”
Dr Lucrezia Cester
For more information, please click on the links below.
*References:
- https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/for-professionals/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics-uk-factsheet.pdf
- https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/nhs-long-term-plan-june-2019.pdf
- https://www.optimumcomms.com/how-is-ai-being-used-to-improve-healthcare/
- https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/online-version/chapter-3-further-progress-on-care-quality-and-outcomes/better-care-for-major-health-conditions/cardiovascular-disease/#:~:text=This%20is%20the%20single%20biggest,alcohol%20misuse%20and%20food%20reformulation.
- NHS Long Term Plan » Cardiovascular disease
TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE THROUGH INNOVATION
