TTP plc, NHS Highland and The University of the Highlands and Islands to partner on atrial fibrillation clinical data collection and analysis project

AF is a common heart condition, causing an abnormally fast heart rate and irregular rhythm, which can lead to significant morbidity (e.g. stroke, heart failure), and mortality. Treatment options include drugs and/or ECV, however although morbidity and mortality can be significantly reduced with ECV, it is successful at one year in only 30% of patients. The ECV procedure also carries risk and is expensive to carry out. Consequently, there is an urgent need to predict which patients with AF are most suitable for treatment using ECV. Successfully predicting treatment suitability using remotely collectable data becomes especially valuable in geographies where population density is sparse, and where patients may often travel long distances for treatment.

NHS Highland and The University of the Highlands and Islands will work together to gather clinical data including electrocardiograms (ECGs), age, gender, comorbidities, medications and outcomes, all of which will be anonymised at source. TTP will analyse and interpret the data, using this information to determine any clinical notable ECG-derived factors that may influence short - and long-term AF outcomes post ECV. TTP will also use the data to rapidly prototype and train machine-learning algorithms for clinical prediction and risk scoring. The output of the project has the potential to be taken forward to be deployed in clinical settings such as the NHS as a risk stratification/clinical decision support tool.