Heart disease is a silent and often costly killer. About 610,000 people die of it in the U.S. each year, putting it at the top of the leading causes of death for women and men. And the total combined annual cost in the U.S. arising from heart disease is roughly $200 billion, owing to health care services, medications, and lost productivity.
Since 2013, a trio of entrepreneurs — Connor Landgraf, Jason Bellet, and Tyler Crouch — has been attempting to turn the tide with heart disease monitoring software, AI, and heart sound and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors. Their work catalyzed the founding of Berkeley, California-based Eko Health, which partnered with the Mayo Clinic on algorithms that screen patients for the presence of weak heart pumps.
Separately, Eko is collaborating with Northwestern Medicine and Sutter Health to improve valvular heart disease screening and connect cardiologists with remote rural patients.