How a face scan in the GP waiting room may just save your life

New camera technology can detect heart rhythm defects by scanning patients’ faces in a GP waiting room.

Heart Research Institute cardiologist Ben Freedman.

Australian researchers have developed new camera technology that can detect heart rhythm defects by scanning patients’ faces in a GP waiting room.

The heart rhythm abnormality known as atrial fibrillation, which triggers catastrophic strokes, is a common condition that often remains undiagnosed.

Doctors usually detect atrial fibrillation in patients by performing an electrocardiogram.

The new technology uses a ­single camera to record facial features on groups of people at once, said Heart Research Institute cardiologist Ben Freedman, who researched and developed the technology in conjunction with Hong Kong-based academics.

“Every time the heart beats, it gives a pulse of red blood to the face,” Professor Freedman said.

“The video looks for subtle changes in the skin colour from heartbeat to heartbeat, picking up the silent signs of this dangerous condition.

“The recording is quickly analysed using AI software to make an accurate, contactless diagnosis.”

Details of the camera technology research is published on Thursday in the journal JAMA Cardiology, and could be rolled out in coming years in GP waiting rooms to screen for atrial ­fibrillation.

“Sadly, many Australians experience this type of severe, life-changing stroke, and they don’t know they are even at risk of it until it’s too late,” said Professor Freedman. “Our technology can quickly scan the face and pick up telltale signs of this heart problem, and pass the discovery on to the doctor, all without disturbing the patient in any way.

“We call this opportunistic screening — screening people who come in for another reason and they’re usually totally ­asymptomatic.”

Atrial fibrillation is a common irregular heart rhythm disorder that causes poor bloodflow to the body and interferes with the normal pumping of the heart. Irregular pumping allows clots to form that can break off and enter the ­arteries, blocking bloodflow to the brain and causing a stroke.

Atrial fibrillation affects 500,000 Australians, or 15 in every 1000 patients over the age of 65, and is associated with one-third of all strokes in older people.

Sufferers are at five times the risk of having a stroke. Strokes triggered by atrial fibrillation tend to be larger, more severe and harder to survive than other strokes.

Those diagnosed with atrial fibrillation are prescribed anti-coagulants that prevent blood clots and reduce the risk of stroke.

Researchers have suggested the technology could be used in specially marked sections of a GP waiting room, with patients opting in to have the facial scans.

“If we could do this at scale, regularly screen people in the stroke age range, we could save many hundreds of strokes each year,” Professor Freedman said.

Atrial fibrillation is estimated to contribute to more than 60,000 hospitalisations each year in Australia: about 1.5 per cent of the population is estimated to have undiagnosed atrial fibrillation .

Opportunistic screening for atrial fibrillation — screening when a patient presents for another reason — is recommended by heart health guidelines but is infrequently performed in practice.

A recent survey of GPs found Australian respondent doctors had opportunistically screened only 11 per cent of patients 65 years and older in the fortnight prior to completing the survey.