Chronic (long-term) Heart failure (HF) is a condition in which the heart cannot pump blood adequately. It is increasingly common, and deadlier than most cancers.
Early diagnosis and treatment of HF improves quality of life and survival. Unacceptably, 80% of patients have their HF diagnosed only when very unwell, requiring an emergency hospital admission.
This is the primary reason an AI-enabled stethoscope – which can help doctors pick up three heart conditions (including HF) in just 15 seconds – has been developed.
And the real-world TRICORDER trial of its use (part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF)) was presented recently at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress in Madrid (Nakhare, 2025).
This trial was reported in The Times in August 2025. This innovative device, developed by researchers at Imperial College in the UK, demonstrated a significant increase in the early detection of heart failure by identifying three conditions in this brief timeframe.
The study, involving more than 200 GP surgeries, with more than 1.5 million patients, looked at people with symptoms such as breathlessness or fatigue.
Those examined using an AI stethoscope were twice as likely to be diagnosed with heart failure, compared to similar patients who were not examined using the technology.
Patients examined with the AI-stethoscope were about 3.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AF) – an abnormal heart rhythm which can increase the risk of having a stroke.
And they were almost twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of heart valve disease, which is where one or more heart valves do not work properly.
