First Irish patient implanted with heart failure management system from Irish company FIRE1

The company aims to transform heart failure management by enabling patients to monitor and control their fluid volume themselves with a device at home

Dublin-based company, FIRE1, announced that the first Irish patient has been successfully implanted with its FIRE1 System for remote heart failure monitoring. The system has the potential to positively impact thousands of people living with heart failure. The successful implantation took place at University Hospital Galway in the First in Human Clinical Investigation of the FIRE1 System in Heart Failure Patients (FUTURE-HF). The study will assess FIRE1’s novel solution to improve outcomes for those living with heart failure.

The Irish medtech company seeks to transform heart failure management by enabling patients to monitor and control their fluid volume themselves with a device at home, similar to how continuous glucose monitoring transformed diabetes care. Fluid overload is a classic clinical feature of heart failure, which affects approximately 90,000 Irish people and is a leading cause of hospitalisations, including high admission and readmissions rates in Ireland.

The FIRE1 sensor is implanted into the inferior vena cava (IVC) and works by continuously measuring the size of the IVC, giving a marker of the amount of fluid in the body. High levels can increase the risk of breathing difficulties and a build-up of fluid in the lungs which lead to an emergency hospital admission. The patient wears a belt reader around the abdomen for around a minute a day to take a reading from the sensor and the data is sent to the patient’s clinical team at the hospital. The system is designed to alert whenever the patient’s condition deteriorates.

Professor of Interventional Cardiology and Translational Medicine at University Hospital Galway (UHG), Prof Faisal Sharif performed the implant. “We are delighted to bring this new, transformative technology to Ireland for the first time,” said Prof Sharif.

 “The procedure was very straightforward, minimally invasive and the patient was confident using the FIRE1 system and taking the readings. The data we will get from this patient will give a new window into heart failure management and has the potential to dramatically improve our understanding of this patient’s condition, and to enable proactive changes in medications that will keep them healthy and at home. We hope to implant further patients at UHG while recruitment is still active.”