Satelia relies on telemonitoring to reduce hospitalization of heart failure patients

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To reduce the hospitalization rate of patients suffering from heart failure, the Bordeaux start-up Satelia has created a remote monitoring application now used by 95 hospitals or clinics in France and 130 cardiologists. The people affected by this pathology, characterized by a heavy mortality, are currently 500,000 in France. Their hearts are unable to provide enough blood to meet the body's metabolic needs.

in COLLABORATION WITH CHU com BORDEAUX

Launched in November 2018, the functioning of Satelia is based on the use of an algorithm. "With the Bordeaux University Hospital Center, we have developed an algorithm that analyzes patients' responses and predicts whether they will be hospitalized.", schematizes Nicolas Pagès, CEO of Satelia and resuscitating anesthesiologist, interviewed by The Digital Factory. To develop it, the CEO explains that he and his team went through the existing scientific literature and questioned cardiologists and patients to compile a maximum of clinical data. "Since then we have refined the system. For example, at first, patients could only answer with 'yes' or 'no'; now you can grade your answer between 'not at all' and 'a lot'. "

The operation of the application is very simple. The cardiologist registers the patient on the website and the patient receives one to three text messages every week containing a link to a "web application"with a questionnaire to fill out. The sick person must answer eight questions about his weight, fatigue, edema (abnormal accumulation of fluid in the tissues), cough, shortness of breath on exertion and at rest, worsening symptoms and drug treatments.

If the lights are red, the referring doctor is immediately alerted. Depending on the severity, he may readjust the treatment or even order hospitalization. "Satelia saves cardiologists time in monitoring patients with heart failure"says Nicolas Pagès. The application also provides physicians with a history of responses that can be consulted during a routine examination. From the point of view of patient users, this regular monitoring avoids a fatal outcome.

Since the end of November 2019, Satelia has added a category of patients in its application: people with a ventricular assistance device – or artificial heart. The questions posed to the patients then relate to the clinical parameters but also technical related to the operation of the machine. "For the moment, only the centers of Bordeaux, Toulouse and Montpellier use this functionality ", specifies the CEO, who hopes that the 13 French centers taking care of patients with hearing aids will soon also adopt it.

"Our strength is our academic roots", says Nicolas Pagès. And it is not for nothing if Satelia relies heavily on its hospital partners In fact, each update of the cardiology application is first tested by the Bordeaux University Hospital where practitioners and patients give their opinions.

Reduce the number of hospitalizations

The average age at diagnosis of the disease is 74 years. This parameter forced Satelia to think about a solution for people who do not have an internet connection at their health home. "We absolutely did not want to reinforce digital exclusion. We want to offer as many people as possible the benefits of the prediction algorithm", says Nicolas Pagès. In this situation, nurses contact the people concerned via their landline, ask them the questions aloud and enter the answers themselves into the system.

Since April 2019, this medical device is 100% reimbursed by Social Security. "Cardiologists prescribe Satelia, the patient uses the application and 'Safely' pays Satelia and the user physicians ", sums up Nicolas Pagès. The idea behind it is that the use of the application saves health costs for the community, hence its full reimbursement. Punctual hospitalizations represent the first item of Social Security expenditure, with 31.1 billion euros to be reimbursed each year.

Next target: oncology

In March 2020, the cardiology application will be deployed in "five European countries"thanks to the partnership established by the young shoot with WeHealth, the laboratory's subsidiary Servier dedicated to smart health connected health. Satelia hopes to develop a "fifteen applications"for different pathologies. The next project concerns cancerology. Nicolas Pagès tells us that a new application is currently being tested in a number of"pilot centers " for people with cancer.

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