HanseMerkur offers smart stroke prevention using a mini-EKG

German insurer HanseMerkur is expanding its health care services with a new digital heart screening for patients to independently and easily perform an ECG at home that reliably detects atrial fibrillation.

Initially started as a three-month project with around 200 insureds in Hamburg and Berlin, HanseMerkur is now gradually expanding digital heart screening throughout Germany for people at risk from the age of 55 who are fully insured.

The mini-EKG “dpv-ritmo” used is developed by DPV Analytics . Patients can have the device delivered to their home. Dpv-ritmo is applied wirelessly to the chest with a waterproof plaster, where it records a full 3-channel ECG. Unlike conventional EKGs, dpv-ritmo works entirely without cables and is shower-proof. After three days, the patient takes the device off again and sends it back to dpv-analytics. There the recorded data is analyzed with high precision by special software. The result is validated by experienced cardiologists before the insured receives it.

“Digitization opens up completely new possibilities for targeted and preventive protection of people’s health. We perceive our customers to be very open to digital health care services. The response to our new heart screening was correspondingly positive in the pilot phase. But despite all the innovative strength, we, together with our partner dpv-analytics, rely on the combination of digital medical diagnostics and personal contact. Because people want to be closely accompanied in their preventive health care.” – Holger Ehses, board member of HanseMerkur.