iRhythm Technologies (NASDAQ: IRTC), a leading digital health care solutions company focused on the advancement of cardiac care, today announced it is the first technology to pass through a new digital health tech pilot, resulting in a successful recommendation for adoption from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

iRhythm’s Zio XT Service – a patient-friendly ambulatory cardiac monitor supported by deep learning algorithms – has been assessed as part of NICE’s first pilot project to evaluate digital health technologies. Zio XT has been positively recommended by NICE as an option for people with suspected cardiac arrhythmias who would benefit from ECG monitoring for longer than 24 hours.

Published today, the guidance concluded that Zio XT is convenient and easy to wear, with greater patient compliance and improved diagnostic yield (a measure of how many people with cardiac arrhythmias are diagnosed) compared with standard 24-hour Holter monitoring. Clinical evidence showed that patients preferred Zio XT compared to current monitoring practice in the NHS, which usually involves wearing a continuous ECG monitor, such as the 24-hour Holter monitor. Estimates also suggest that using Zio XT is likely to be cost saving, or cost the same as using 24-hour Holter monitoring.

Commenting on the news, Justin Hall, GM and VP EMEA at iRhythm said, “We are delighted that Zio has received such positive guidance from NICE in this first of its kind evaluation, especially at such a critical time. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen a number of cardiac patients avoiding hospitals and suffering in silence, even when experiencing serious conditions such as strokes. This has led to a backlog of patients requiring care, putting additional pressure on medical staff and services.”

“Fortunately, services like Zio can help ease this backlog, offering clinically-validated services remotely. Patients are not required to expose themselves to high-risk hospital environments, while staff can still offer the same continued level of care. It’s critical, therefore, that patients have access to these technologies and for clinicians to be able to implement them quickly and easily.”

The guidance, which evaluates new, innovative medical devices and diagnostics, aims to help people in the NHS make efficient, cost-effective and consistent decisions about adopting new medical technologies. A positive NICE Medical Technologies Guidance opens the door for future support of the Zio service through the MedTech Funding Mandate, which aims to help accelerate the uptake of proven affordable innovations as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

iRhythm’s positive recommendation from the NICE digital health pilot builds on the company’s recent win of the UK government’s AI in Health and Care Award, in which iRhythm will utilise the funding to evaluate its Zio service in selected NHS sites across the UK. Throughout the three-year programme, clinical, pathway and economic outcomes will be monitored and evaluated in order to inform any future commissioning decisions around the adoption of Zio within the NHS.

About iRhythm Technologies, Inc.

iRhythm is a leading digital health care company redefining the way cardiac arrhythmias are clinically diagnosed. The company combines wearable biosensor devices worn for up to 14 days and cloud-based data analytics with powerful proprietary algorithms that distil data from millions of heartbeats into clinically actionable information. The company believes improvements in arrhythmia detection and characterization have the potential to change clinical management of patients.

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