On February 5, 2025, Heart Valve Voice and Gill Furniss MP hosted a testing event in Parliament to highlight the importance of early detection of Heart Valve Disease (HVD) at the community level and the crucial role of technology and AI in improving the detection process. The event brought together pharmacists, patients, and cardiologists from across the UK, and invited parliamentarians to undergo heart checks.
During the event, cardiologists performed initial heart checks using traditional stethoscopes. Following this, parliamentarians were invited to have a similar heart check with pharmacists who used an AI-enhanced stethoscope to listen to heart murmurs via a digital platform, which then assessed the likelihood of heart disease. This demonstration aimed to highlight the efficiency, accuracy and innovation AI-enhanced stethoscopes could bring to traditional tools, which were more capacity intensive. It also demonstrated the significance of how detection could be now delivered at different levels of care, shifting from often overburdened GPs and cardiologists to pharmacists or community healthcare professionals at the local level.
If the AI tool detected a risk of heart disease, the pharmacists also demonstrated the ease of sharing the findings and the heart sound recording with GPs, who are responsible for referring them directly to an echocardiography for a full check and diagnosis. Trials on the use of the AI-enhanced stethoscopes are ongoing in England, with one delivered in Hampshire Integrated Care System supported by the SHD Coalition member Dr John de Verteuil.
Particularly in the post-pandemic era, stethoscope checks at GPs have become less common due to the overstretch of primary care services. This innovative AI technology reduces the burden on GPs to carry out traditional stethoscope checks and instead directly treat patients with detected heart murmurs, reducing patient waiting times for stethoscope checks at GP appointments. These patients can then referred directly by GPs to echo services for diagnosis and treatment planning.
Over 50 parliamentarians attended the event, expressing their support for the initiative. Cardiologists from across the UK were also present at the event, including SHD Coalition Women’s Taskforce member Dr Clare Appleby. This aligns with the government’s goals of reducing the elective backlog, supporting earlier diagnosis of major conditions, reducing health inequalities, and shifting care from hospitals to the community.
Following the event, Heart Valve Voice issued a Call to Action, to register your support, please visit here. Gill Furniss MP has submitted an Early Day Motion (EDM) on the early detection of heart valve disease in Parliament, supported by MPs, to follow the EDM please visit this link.