Imagine a world where a cardiologist is provided with every patient’s heart health profile in real time.

That’s a key service offered by Vector Remote Care of Bend, according to its CEO and President Kevin Hoffman. Compassionate, expert service paired with software automation are the secret to success. Patient engagement and simple data management tools give physicians a quick summary of issues a patient may be experiencing, thus getting ahead of potential problems, such as a stroke or a failing cardiac device.

“Often, this data is overwhelming to clinics,” said Hoffman. “We’ve built a software platform to engage patients and simplify data management to give care teams insight as to when action needs to be taken.”

When it comes to arrhythmia or stroke, time is precious. Hoffman is driven by personal experience that inspires his vision to connect every patient to their doctor. “I was on a ski vacation with my family at Mammoth Mountain in 1992 and was 12 at the time. My mom went into cardiac arrest while we were having lunch, a ventricular arrhythmia. She was given CPR and survived and was life-flighted off the mountain.”

A teacher, Hoffman’s mother, initially suffered some brain damage and had to relearn some of the basics, such as multiplication tables, the alphabet, United States presidents.

“It was quite an ordeal for a 12-year-old,” he noted.

While her recovery was speedy, and she returned to teaching, at one point her implanted defibrillator wiring failed and began unnecessarily shocking her heart repeatedly.

“The device was malfunctioning, shocking her heart 20 to 30 times. It was a traumatic experience and set her back quite a bit. It was frustrating because it was preventable,” Hoffman said.

The event spurred Hoffman to get into the cardiac arena. He wanted to prevent other people from suffering the way his mom had. Following college, he trained at the Arrhythmia Technology Institute, and later St. Jude Medical helping doctors implant devices and monitor patients in Southern California for about 15 years.

When wireless bedside monitors became commonplace on the market, allowing clinics to watch for trouble signs remotely, he found his opportunity.

Following a Bend mountain biking vacation in 2011, the idea had come to Hoffman that he would build a platform to monitor heart devices remotely and chose Bend as the place to do it. In December 2016, the first office was at BendTECH, a local startup coworking space. Today, the main office is in the District 2 complex of Northwest Crossing in Bend, with additional offices in Long Island, NY, and Indianapolis, IN.

“It was a leap of faith to bootstrap a company while supporting a young family of five,” he said. He started the business with his wife, Wendy, and one cardiac technician. Vector has since grown to 67 full-time employees, many working remotely across the country. Plans are to scale up to 85 employees and to monitor more than 75,000 patients by year-end across the U.S.

Today, most heart monitors transmit through patients’ smartphones. While implanted cardiac device patients are Vector’s core business, new devices are rapidly coming to market. Even digital watches monitor heart rhythms. Vector offers blood pressure monitoring today and plans to incorporate wearable technologies into its platform within the year. Kevin has seen firsthand that sharing data from patients during their daily activity from home helps doctors identify and prevent problems.

“It allows us to get a lot more information than we have ever had available, which can be overwhelming without help. With Vector, this data is easily acted upon and leads to superior patient outcomes for our customers,” Hoffman said.

“Daily remote monitoring of implanted cardiac devices has been the standard of care recommended by the Heart Rhythm Society since 2015, but more than ever, cardiology clinics struggle to keep up. This rapidly growing group of patients deserve better care, and Vector is providing it,” Hoffman said. “Our work at Vector can improve outcomes for millions of patients in the US. The impact Vector makes to prevent hospitalizations and improve patient lives is enormous. We are driving improved outcomes across the country and have a significant opportunity ahead of us.”

“We hang our hats on patient engagement. We maintain contact with each patient through phone calls, text messages, and live support, getting more patients connected, which leads to better outcomes. Happy, engaged patients make for happy clinics who can deliver superior patient health — a true win for everyone.”

See the website at vectorremote.com