Dr Hongxing Luo (Department of Physiology) has been awarded an NWO Faculty of Impact grant of €201,000 for the project Smartphone-Measured Heart Sounds for Remote Heart Failure Monitoring. Over the next two years, he will further develop FonoCheck, a smartphone-based solution that enables heart failure patients to record heart sounds at home for remote assessment.

 The project aims to validate FonoCheck in a prospective study and to advance the technology towards CE mark certification in collaboration with Brightlands. The Faculty of Impact programme also provides entrepreneurial training and coaching, including peer-to-peer sessions and masterclasses, to support the further development of FonoCheck towards clinical implementation and broader adoption.

 FonoCheck could help enable timely intervention at home, reduce avoidable hospital readmissions, and contribute to the shift from hospital-based to home-based cardiovascular care. The solution may also have potential applications in other heart diseases, including valvular heart diseases and atrial fibrillation.