The Heart Rhythm Society announces grant recipients of the 2017 AFib Screening and Education initiative

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The Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) has announced eight US facilities to be awarded funding to
support the development of the 2017 AFib Screening and Education initiative. The programme is designed to increase awareness of atrial fibrillation among patients and caregivers, support the development of an atrial fibrillation screening and education programme, and collect non-scientific data of patients screened.

The AFib Screening and Education initiative targets those suffering from common co-morbidities or those showing signs of common risk factors. The HRS programme also hopes to identify, screen, and educate patients at the point of care, in partnership with appropriate clinics and/or organisations at the local level. This opportunity was open to HRS members within the USA and is supported by the Bristol-Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance and AliveCor.

HRS member grant recipient facilities are:

  • Department of Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo
  • East Carolina University, Department of Psychology
  • Edward-Elmhurst Healthcare
  • Mayo Clinic Rochester
  • North Ohio Heart Center
  • The OSU Ross Heart Hospital ‒ Electrophysiology
  • University of Massachusetts Medical School
  • Wellness Center at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center

The programme will be run from 1 August 2017 to 31 January 2018. A spokesperson from HRS said that the grant recipients will be awarded with $20,000 dollars, at least two AliveCor Kardia units for screening and at least 250 HRS atrial fibrillation patient brochures.

The awardees were selected on the basis of completion of the request for application in full prior to the submission deadline (29 May 2017), thoroughness of the submission, screening method and implementation plans, location/type of the site and statistical probability that positive screenings will result, and advisory panel confidence in the management of the project based on the implementation plan provided.

The grant recipients must screen at least 250 eligible patients over the award’s project term. Patients to be screened must not have a pre-diagnosis of atrial fibrillation and should have at least two atrial fibrillation risk factors, which include: sleep apnoea, peripheral vascular disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, female sex and age greater than 75 years old.

At the end of the programme (31 January 2018), grant recipients must provide to HRS the accrued data on patient screening including number of patients approached, number of patients successfully screened and data for each screened patient (age, gender, additional risk factor(s) screening site, positive/negative or indeterminate screen results).


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