Photo: AliveCor KardiaMobile Card (at AliveCor.com)
One of the miracles of our era is the constellation of medical diagnostic devices that allow patients to manage their own health to a degree previously unimaginable. Those who know me have likely heard about my AliveCor Kardia devices. I just purchased their newest product. It looks like a credit card, but it can help me to avoid long, expensive, unnecessary trips to the emergency room. And maybe, just maybe, one day it will help me to avoid having a debilitating or lethal stroke. This incredible device cost me a mere $80.
In 2016, I was speaking in Arizona to several hundred insurance plan CEOs and other higher-ups. Part of my talk focused on a new device called the AliveCor Kardia. This was a relatively small device that one could affix to the back of a cellphone. In concert with AliveCor’s app, a patient with atrial fibrillation (afib—a type of heart arrhythmia) could take his own clinical-quality electrocardiogram (EKG) in 30 seconds. An artificial intelligence component of the system produced an instant analysis of the rhythms and advised the patient whether he was in normal sinus rhythm or whether he might be experiencing afib—which can result in fatal or crippling strokes. I don’t believe any of the insurers had ever heard of the device, which I noted was a problem, in that this inexpensive device could save insurers substantial money currently spent on needless emergency room visits—and big money spent on needless strokes. (After my talk, the host who had invited me to the meeting said a 30-something friend of hers had died because she didn’t realize that she was having an afib episode.)
The next morning, back in Virginia, lying in bed at 6:00 am, I felt a strange sensation in my chest, and my wife took me to the ER. I was laid out on a gurney with a dozen wires strapped to me. The doctor said, “Sir, you are experiencing atrial fibrillation. Do you know what that is?” I said, “Yes, I gave a lecture on it yesterday.” He said, “Oh. Then I guess we can skip the preliminaries.” I came out of it and went home, but it was a rattling experience.
I immediately bought an AliveCor and, within days, had a chance to use it while driving on a remote road in Western Pennsylvania. I thought I was having another episode, but the device told me that my heartbeat was merely running a little fast, but in normal sinus rhythm. I felt relieved and didn’t have to drive 20 miles to the nearest hospital—and spend the night there, since twilight had already descended. Since then, the device has kept me out of ERs on multiple occasions. (So far, I’ve never had another episode of afib.)
The app also lets patients download their EKG to a PDF and email or text it to a doctor or cardiac technician for analysis. At the click of a button, for a few dollars, AliveCor will have your EKG read by a professional in the company’s own network. On my recommendation, a friend’s husband (who is himself a doctor) bought one of the devices and used it to prove to his doctor that he had afib and was in need of treatment—something he had been unable to prove before.
My original AliveCor device is slightly bulky, glued to the back of a cellphone case and a little lumpy in the pocket. I also own a KardiaMobile 6-lead device which offers more sophisticated measurements (that I probably don’t need); but it isn’t too convenient to tote around. For the sake of convenience, I stopped carrying the AliveCor devices and relied, instead, on a similar functionality on my Apple Watch. It’s a terrific tool, but lacks some of the important capabilities of the AliveCor devices.
The new device I just bought is the AliveCor KardiaMobile Card—pictured at the top of the page—and this device changes everything. Being precisely the size of a credit card, it fits neatly within my wallet and, hence, goes everywhere with me. In general, I use the Apple Watch for routine checks, but if anything worries me, I use the KardiaMobile Card. Below is a reading that I took just this morning. If it had shown symptoms of afib, it would have been in my cardiologist’s inbox within seconds. But happily, this EKG shows 71 beats per minute, with the waves lined up like well-trained soldiers—normal sinus rhythm and a good start for the day.
Bernanke, Nobel, and Me
This morning, I did NOT win the Nobel Prize in Economics (formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel). However, someone I interviewed on C-SPAN in 2013 did win, so for me, that’s the next best thing to getting the prize. The winners this year were three outstanding monetary economists: former Federal Reserve Chair Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond, and Philip H. Dybvig. The joint prize cited their work on “how society deals with financial crises.” On November 19, 2013, I introduced and questioned Chairman Bernanke in one of his final big speeches as Fed Chairman. The occasion was the annual Herbert Stein Memorial Lecture at the annual dinner of the National Economists Club in Washington, DC. You can watch the lecture and Q&A on the C-SPAN site. Bernanke, of course, guided the Fed through the financial meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession. The insights he offered at our 2013 meeting are still worth hearing.
When is Thomas Sowell getting some prize?
😁