Royal Glamorgan Hospital recruits first patients in Wales onto pioneering heart failure trial
The Royal Glamorgan Hospital has marked a significant milestone in cardiac research by recruiting the first patients in Wales to the ME-HF trial, an innovative study aimed at improving care for people living with heart failure.
The ME-HF trial, or Monitoring oEdema in Heart Failure to Improve Function and Reduce Hospitalisation Risk, which is being sponsored by Heartfelt Technologies, is investigating the effectiveness of camera‑based home monitoring systems in identifying the possible worsening of heart failure through the early detection of lower‑limb swelling, to improve outcomes for patients.
The team in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, led by Heart Failure Advanced Clinical Nurse Specialist, Aimee Ibbotson, has recruited the first patient in Wales onto the trial, marking a significant milestone of expanding the study beyond England.
Aimee said: “We are very pleased to recruit the first patient to the ME‑HF trial in Wales. This marks an exciting and important milestone, and it highlights our commitment to embedding research across our organisation, and our determination to ensure that the communities we serve have the opportunity to actively engage with and benefit from innovations in healthcare.”
Since the first patient recruitment in Wales, the Princess of Wales Hospital has also had strong recruitment onto this study.
When a patient has heart failure, it can cause the body to often retain fluid, leading to swelling in the feet and lower legs. It is already understood that fluctuations in swelling may indicate that a patient’s condition is getting worse, but this trial aims to understand whether closer monitoring of these changes can lead to earlier intervention which may reduce the need for a hospital admission.
Central to the study is the use of the Heartfelt Technologies device, a contactless “foot scanner” that automatically measures swelling as patients walk past. The device captures images of the feet and lower legs without requiring any manual input, and are securely transmitted to the research team, where they are analysed to track changes over time.
If increased swelling is detected, the system can generate alerts to notify healthcare teams, potentially prompting earlier clinical intervention. Researchers are assessing whether this technology can reliably detect swelling and, whether sharing this information with care teams improves patient outcomes.
Professor John Geen, Assistant Director for Research and Development, said: “The collaboration between the heart failure nursing teams at Royal Glamorgan and Princess of Wales Hospitals and the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Research & Development Team, has been key to this trial’s progress.
“The commitment of all involved has enabled this innovative study to proceed. It is great to see members of the nursing profession acting as Principal Investigators at both sites. Through their research leadership, the Health Board has been able to research the adoption of novel digital technology with the real potential to inform future heart failure care pathways. This approach supports earlier intervention and, ultimately, better outcomes for patients living with heart failure.”
The first Welsh recruitment, and strong additional recruitment within CTM, marks a promising development in the effort to harness technology to deliver more proactive, preventative healthcare for heart failure patients.