CardioScan Aotearoa manager Jez Morris is part of a heart monitoring business expanding its services to Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
CardioScan Aotearoa manager Jez Morris is part of a heart monitoring business expanding its services to Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
A new heart monitoring business expanding to Whanganui aims to offer patients better access to care through heart tests that can be run on a miniature monitor.
CardioScan Aotearoa manager Jez Morris, who works out of Taranaki, said the demand for cardiology services was increasing across New Zealand.
Whanganui currently does not have a cardiologist and patients must travel to Palmerston North to be seen by one.
CardioScan Aotearoa can test patients using small, portable monitors that can be worn for up to a week when doing activities such as riding a bike or showering. The monitor measures the person’s heart rate and assesses its irregularity.
“When your heart skips a beat - people say that’s love, but it’s not, it’s an arrhythmia and it’s good to get it checked,” Morris said.
There are a range of cardiology specialists who will analyse the results of the heart monitor tests and can report on them remotely.
The heart monitors are easily accessible, portable and can be worn in water or out doing physical exercise. Photo / Bevan Conley
Most of the time the outcomes of tests could reassure patients there were no underlying issues, but there were also occasions where the heart monitor picked up signs that pointed towards more serious conditions.
Testing people in their own environments meant cardiologists could review the heart as it normally operated, whereas overnight stays in hospital made it more difficult for people to relax, Morris said.
“We’re getting a faster access to treatment where it’s required.
“Equity is as much about access as it is cost, so you may have an appointment at the local hospital an hour away but if you have three children and don’t have access to a car it becomes a problem.”
The information from heart monitor tests can be sent to a patient’s GP and could lessen the need for referrals to a cardiologist.
During Covid when many services were temporarily shut, the business grew as it allowed people to still access heart monitors and there was an increase in the number of people presenting with cardiac concerns.
Sleep nurse specialist Lynda Aplin, who will run the Ingestre St-based cardio clinic, said there was a connection between sleep and cardiac disease as often people might be experiencing the symptoms of a racing heart when they had sleep apnea or breathlessness during the night.
Morris said sleep was implicated in a significant number of cardiac diseases, such as high blood pressure and heart failure.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
