Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and Story Health Launch Comprehensive Digital Health Program to Support Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute today launched the newest solution on its care platform, a comprehensive program to support patients living with or at risk of developing Atrial Fibrillation (AFib).

Built in collaboration with Story Health, a digital health company transforming specialty care delivery, the new program offers health care organizations a wraparound approach that engages patients in between clinic visits. It supports all pillars of an accessible, evidence-based AFib care program, including symptom management, accelerated treatment, stroke prevention, and continuous patient support.

“Atrial fibrillation poses significant health risks to our patients, and every one of them deserves ongoing support whether they are in one of our facilities or not,” said Sanjaya Gupta, MD, cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. “While the demands of the current health care system can make it difficult to deliver on that promise, this collaboration with Story Health is an incredible opportunity to build a digital health program from the ground up that both extends the reach of our clinicians and elevates the overall level of care we deliver.”

AFib is the most common form of cardiac arrhythmia, yet it is a sorely underdiagnosed and undertreated problem. The condition is commonly comorbid with other health issues such as heart failure and hypertension and significantly increases the risk of stroke. In fact, research suggests that AFib is responsible for approximately 20–30% of the most common type of stroke, especially in older patients.

While the standard of care for treating AFib includes clear evidence-based guidelines, wide variations and disparities in its treatment exist, resulting in poor outcomes. Story Health’s AFib program takes on these challenges by integrating seamlessly with a health system’s clinical team to keep patients on track and actively engaged with their care regimen in between visits and outside of the clinic. The Story Health AFib program utilizes a virtual and asynchronous care model, powered by its technology platform, and guided by experienced health coaches who assist patients in a variety of ways, including addressing social determinants of health barriers.

The core capabilities of Story Health’s AFib program combine to deliver the appropriate support at each progressive stage of the disease:

• Rapidly optimize treatment: Support lifestyle and risk factor modification, monitor and titrate medications for AFib and comorbidities, identify candidates for procedures such as ablations
   
• Collect, monitor, and act on health data: Capture and analyze ECG- and AFib-specific symptom data to inform care plan changes integrated into the health system’s EHR
   
• Active support by specialized health coaches, enabled by the Story Health platform: Serve as care quarterbacks—proactively guiding multidisciplinary care and reducing clinical workload by supporting patients between visits

“Our new AFib program embodies our commitment to magnify specialty care by developing innovative solutions that will improve patient outcomes. By providing a comprehensive care platform that includes both compassionate coaches and digital technology, we're empowering clinicians to deliver the level of care they aspire to while also focusing their skills where they are most needed, ultimately providing the best care to the most people,” said Story Health Co-founder and CEO Tom Stanis. “Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute is among the top cardiology care providers in the world and has a long history of innovation, making them the perfect partner to co-develop our innovative AFib care approach. Together, we will transform the lives of patients with AFib while reducing the burden in the clinic."

Story Health has quickly built its reputation as the premier digital health partner supporting specialty care. The launch of the AFib program complements the company’s industry-leading programs that have already transformed cardiology care at many of the most prestigious health care organizations treating tens of thousands of patients nationwide.

After the initial implementation across Saint Luke’s, Story Health’s AFib program will begin rolling out to select health system customers in the coming months.

About Story Health
Story Health is a health care technology company that is re-imagining complex care management, virtual care delivery, and patient navigation. With a technology-enabled and human-powered approach, Story Health is on a mission to transform each patient’s care journey by enabling clinicians and institutions to implement and scale continuous specialty care delivery to every patient with heart disease, leaving no patient behind. Story Health works with many of the most prestigious health systems across the country, including ChristianaCare, Intermountain Health, and West Virginia University in addition to many leading at-risk providers. For more information, please visit StoryHealth.com.

About Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute
Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute is part of Saint Luke’s Health System, which serves the West Region of BJC Health System, one of the largest nonprofit health care organizations in the United States. The Heart Institute, a teaching affiliate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, is one of the distinguished cardiovascular programs in the country. Its legacy of innovation began more than 40 years ago when it opened as the nation’s first freestanding heart hospital. Since then, the Heart Institute has earned a global reputation for excellence in the treatment of heart disease, including interventional cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, imaging, heart failure, transplant, heart disease prevention, cardiometabolic disease, women’s heart disease, electrophysiology, outcomes research, and health economics. Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute cardiologists offer personalized cardio-oncology care, where our experts diagnose and treat heart conditions in patients who have been or are being treated for cancer.

With more than 100 full-time, board-certified cardiovascular specialists on staff, Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute offers one of the country's largest heart failure and heart transplant programs, has the largest experience with transcatheter aortic valve replacement in the Midwest, and is a global teaching site for the newest approaches in coronary revascularization. The Heart Institute's cardiovascular research program encompasses clinical areas as well as centers of excellence and core laboratories. It continues to serve as one of the four Analytic Centers, along with Duke, Harvard, and Yale, for the American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry.

Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute is ranked 47th in the nation for Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery by U.S. News & World Report and is the third hospital in the U.S. to achieve Comprehensive Cardiac Center certification from The Joint Commission.