Echopoint Medical Ltd. today announced a new collaboration with the International Heart Spasms Alliance (IHSA), the global patient-advocacy organisation for people living with ANOCA, INOCA, coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) and coronary vasospasm. 

This relationship unites Echopoint’s team developing the iKOr system, a coronary physiology platform, with the IHSA, whose advocacy has helped bring these conditions from the margins of cardiology into mainstream conversation.  

For decades, patients (predominantly women) presenting with chest pain and no obstructive disease on angiogram have been told their arteries “look normal,” often followed by anxiety diagnoses and years of dismissal. It is now well established that many of these patients have real, measurable microvascular or vasomotor disease driving their symptoms. The iKOr system is being developed to detect exactly this, giving clinicians a complete picture of coronary function in a single, streamlined cath-lab workflow, so that patients are no longer sent home without answers.  

A partnership built on the patient voice 

At Echopoint we believe that a device designed to change patient outcomes cannot be built without the voice of the patients it’s built for. Under this relationship, IHSA leadership will help ensure the patient voice is present at every stage of iKor’s clinical evaluation and public communication. Last week, IHSA co-founder Sarah Brown visited the office for a demo of the iKOr system. The team heard her stories of dismissal and misdiagnoses, and were inspired to get the iKOr system into clinicians hands, so patients can finally receive a definitive diagnosis. 

“IHSA has spent years making sure these patients are seen and heard. We’re very pleased to be building iKor alongside them.”
Antony Odell, Chief Executive Officer, Echopoint Medical 

“It is vital to our patient community to have technology that highlights blood flow within our smallest vessels. Echopoint’s iKOr system aligns with our needs by providing safe, reliable measurements in current cath labs, reducing stress on both patients and our clinician partners.“
Annette Pompa, President and Founding Member, International Heart Spasms Alliance