Atrility’s signature device – the AtriAmp – provides continuous, real-time displays of the heart’s atrial signals. For patients, including babies, children, and some adults, this means better outcomes because precious minutes are not wasted waiting for results from a time-consuming electrocardiogram (ECG).

Several recent developments bolster Atrility’s outlook, including (1) a financial investment in Atrility by Isthmus Project, UW Health’s innovation hub; (2) UW Health becoming Atrility’s first customer, meaning that patients are already benefiting from the use of the device at American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison; and (3) winning the grand prize of the 18th annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Elizabeth Hagerman, Ph.D., Isthmus Project’s Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer for UW Health, says the financial investment was made based on the great promise of the AtriAmp device.

“Dr. Von Bergen identified an unmet need in his own practice and, with his team, built a solution to improve the level of care available to patients of UW Health’s Pediatric Heart Program,” Hagerman says.

“Our goal at Isthmus Project is to support UW-based health care innovation, so as we saw an opportunity, Isthmus Project was eager to support Atrility in the next stage of growth and continued product development.”

Not long after, UW Health became Atrility’s first customer, making the AtriAmp device available in caring for babies and small children after having open-heart surgery. Physicians on the front lines confirm the value AtriAmp is adding to the care of babies and children in the pivotal hours and days following surgery.

“This is an extraordinary device,” says UW Health pediatric cardiologist Kathleen Maginot, MD. “We can immediately pinpoint the cause of an arrhythmia after a patient comes out of surgery. The AtriAmp allows us to evaluate detailed heart signals continuously rather than intermittently, then we can intervene right away when a patient might be in trouble. The consensus among our staff is, ‘How did we ever get by without it?’”

Maginot’s pediatric cardiology colleague, Dr. Margaret Greco, knows a good product when she sees one, having studied product design as an undergraduate.

“AtriAmp saves time while freeing up our busy colleagues who had to drop everything to do an ECG or atrial electrogram,” Greco says. “By greatly magnifying the heart’s electrical signals, we can catch problems much earlier and treat them accordingly.”