iRhythm and Lucem Health Partner to Introduce Predictive AI Solution for Early Detection of Arrhythmias in Patient Populations with Comorbid Conditions

Rhea-AI Summary

iRhythm Technologies (NASDAQ:IRTC) has announced a strategic partnership with Lucem Health to develop an AI-powered solution for early arrhythmia detection. The collaboration's first commercial offering will use predictive AI to analyze clinical and EHR data to identify arrhythmia risk in patients with Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, COPD, and coronary artery disease.

The solution integrates with iRhythm's Zio® ECG monitors and service, providing up to 14 days of continuous heart monitoring. Early pilot testing has shown promising results in targeting high-risk populations. The partnership aims to address an estimated 27 million undiagnosed patients in the U.S., targeting healthcare organizations focused on population health management and value-based care strategies.

Recent research presented at various medical conferences demonstrates that arrhythmia patients with comorbid conditions experience up to 2x higher hospitalization rates and 35-50% higher emergency care costs, with average annual healthcare expenses of $46,000 compared to $30,000 for those without arrhythmias.

Positive

• Strategic partnership combines iRhythm's proven diagnostic service with Lucem Health's AI platform for early disease detection
• Solution targets an estimated market of 27 million undiagnosed patients in the U.S.
• Integration with Zio® ECG monitors provides up to 14 days of continuous monitoring
• Early pilot testing shows promising results in identifying high-risk patients
• Direct investment in Lucem Health demonstrates long-term commitment to predictive innovation

Negative

• Implementation success depends on healthcare organizations' adoption of the technology
• Requires integration with existing healthcare systems and EHR data
• Outcomes and cost savings yet to be proven at scale

Insights

Healthcare Technology Analyst

iRhythm's partnership with Lucem Health creates a predictive AI solution targeting 27M undiagnosed arrhythmia patients, expanding their market reach.

iRhythm's strategic partnership with Lucem Health represents a significant expansion of their business model beyond reactive cardiac monitoring into predictive healthcare. Their joint AI-powered solution aims to identify patients with elevated arrhythmia risk before symptoms appear, particularly focusing on those with Type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, COPD, and coronary artery disease.

The partnership has three compelling value propositions. First, it expands iRhythm's addressable market to an estimated 27 million undiagnosed patients in the U.S. alone. Second, it positions iRhythm strategically in the growing value-based care ecosystem, targeting ACOs, integrated health systems, and payviders who bear financial risk for patient outcomes. Third, it leverages iRhythm's existing Zio ECG monitoring technology within a new predictive framework, creating an additional revenue stream without significant product development costs.

Early pilot testing shows promising improvements in identifying high-risk patients, which should drive adoption among healthcare systems focused on population health management. The clinical rationale is supported by new research showing arrhythmias often cluster around key moments in disease progression for patients with comorbidities like diabetes.

The economic case is compelling: patients with comorbidities who develop arrhythmias experience up to twice the hospitalization rates and 35-50% higher emergency care costs compared to those without arrhythmias. By enabling earlier intervention, iRhythm's solution addresses a $16,000 per patient cost differential ($46,000 vs $30,000 in annual healthcare expenses).

This partnership represents iRhythm's evolution from a diagnostic device company into a predictive healthcare solutions provider, potentially creating a more sustainable competitive advantage in the increasingly AI-driven healthcare landscape.

• Partnership aims to utilize predictive AI to help identify arrhythmias earlier in patient populations with an elevated risk for arrhythmias to enable timely care for millions who remain undiagnosed
• Commercial offering from this collaboration designed to support scalable population health and value-based care strategies

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRTC), a digital health leader focused on creating trusted solutions that detect, predict, and prevent disease, today announced a strategic partnership with Lucem Health, a leader in AI-driven early disease detection, to accelerate early identification of undiagnosed arrhythmias in patient populations with an elevated risk for arrhythmias.

“Healthcare is entering an era where the goal is no longer just to detect disease, but to predict it,” said Quentin Blackford, iRhythm President and CEO. “Together with Lucem Health, iRhythm is helping lead a new way forward in care, with the goal of reaching patients before symptoms surface and before complications arise. This is a bold step toward predictive, preventive, and precise care powered by AI, informed by data, and designed for scale. We believe more than 27 million people in the U.S. alone could benefit from proactive cardiac monitoring¹ — and this is just the beginning.”

Traditional care models often rely on reactive diagnosis and can leave arrhythmias undetected until stroke, hospitalization, or worse. This partnership brings together Lucem Health’s Reveal AI powered early disease detection platform and iRhythm’s proven diagnostic service to shift that paradigm. By identifying risk earlier and enabling targeted cardiac monitoring, the goal is to help clinicians intervene sooner, improve outcomes across patient populations with elevated arrhythmia risk, and support scalable, data-driven strategies for health systems focused on value-based care.

“Each day, clinicians find themselves reacting to the circumstances of the patients in their exam rooms — they often don’t have the time or the information they need to deliver truly proactive care,” said Sean Cassidy, founder and CEO of Lucem Health. “Together with iRhythm, we’re bringing predictive intelligence to healthcare’s front lines — enabling earlier action, smarter resource allocation, and better outcomes for patients.”

This strategic partnership, supported by iRhythm’s direct investment in Lucem Health, reflects a shared commitment to advancing predictive innovation for population-level impact.

Introducing a Predictive AI Solution for Smarter, Earlier Arrhythmia Detection

The first commercial offering from the collaboration is an exclusive, AI-powered solution that analyzes subtle patterns in clinical and electronic health record (EHR) data to help identify elevated arrhythmia risk in individuals with Type 2 diabetes (T2D), chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and coronary artery disease (CAD) — individuals who may otherwise not be flagged as candidates for ambulatory cardiac monitoring. This offering enables healthcare organizations to proactively pinpoint patients with one or more specifically diagnosed or undiagnosed clinical conditions who could benefit from earlier cardiac monitoring and intervention.

Once identified, appropriate patients can be monitored using iRhythm’s clinically proven Zio^® ECG monitors and service. The Zio ECG device is worn for up to 14 days, enabling continuous, uninterrupted heart rhythm monitoring, and the end-to-end service, powered by an advanced FDA-cleared AI algorithm, delivers actionable insights, reviewed and curated by qualified cardiac technicians, to help clinicians make the right diagnosis the first time and support timely care.

By integrating predictive AI, the new offering builds on iRhythm’s existing proactive monitoring programs deployed with healthcare systems focused on population health management and should enable even earlier arrhythmia risk identification and targeted intervention. The solution is designed to support accountable care organizations (ACOs), integrated health systems, payviders, and other managed care organizations that take on financial responsibility for the cost and quality of care as they pursue scalable value-based care strategies.

Early pilot testing conducted by iRhythm, in collaboration with Lucem Health, suggests promising improvement in targeting patient populations with elevated arrhythmia risk and enabling earlier clinical engagement with greater precision. Both organizations anticipate that use of the AI-powered predictive tool will increase arrhythmia detection among an estimated 27 million undiagnosed patients in the U.S. alone,¹ helping reduce healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) and costs, and improve patient outcomes.

The Cost of Missed Arrhythmias and the Case for Earlier Detection

Cardiac arrhythmias, conditions in which the heart beats too fast, too slow, or irregularly,² affect roughly 1 in 20 U.S. adults³. Left undetected and untreated, they can lead to stroke, heart failure, hospitalization, or death,⁴ making early identification and intervention critical. Yet in many care pathways for individuals with T2D and/or other comorbid conditions, arrhythmias are not routinely screened for, despite elevated risk.⁵

A growing body of evidence highlights the opportunity to detect arrhythmias earlier in at-risk populations — particularly around key clinical turning points in disease progression, as seen in recent data on patients with T2D.

New research presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 85th Scientific Sessions (ADA 2025), based on a real-world study of more than 30 million U.S. adults, found that arrhythmias — often asymptomatic — frequently cluster around key moments in disease progression, particularly in T2D patients. Many arrhythmias were identified just before or shortly after diagnoses of CKD or major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) such as stroke or heart failure.⁶

Additional findings reinforce the broader clinical and economic impact of arrhythmias across chronic conditions like T2D and COPD, and the value of earlier detection and monitoring.

Data presented at the American Heart Association’s 2024 Scientific Sessions revealed that patients with T2D and/or COPD who develop arrhythmias experience up to 2x higher hospitalization rates, 35–50% higher emergency care costs, and an average of $46,000 in annual healthcare expenses — compared to $30,000 for those without arrhythmias.⁷

Adding to this evidence, new research presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) International 2025 conference, based on a real-world study of more than 2.5 million U.S. adults, found that COPD patients with arrhythmia have greater HCRU and costs compared to those without arrhythmia. However, among COPD patients with arrhythmia, those who were monitored had lower HCRU and costs compared to those who were never monitored.⁸

Together, these findings underscore the clinical and economic impact of earlier, smarter detection — and the opportunity for predictive solutions like this initial offering from the iRhythm–Lucem Health collaboration to support value-based care models, reduce unnecessary healthcare utilization, and improve outcomes at scale for patient populations with elevated arrhythmia risk.

Predictive AI-Powered Solution for Population Health and Value-Based Care
U.S.-based innovative care delivery organizations, accountable care organizations (ACOs), integrated health systems, payviders, and other managed care organizations that assume financial responsibility for the cost and quality of care can learn more about the predictive AI solution⁹ and how it may support their population health strategies and value-based care goals by visiting iRhythm’s Value-Based Care page to connect with the iRhythm team.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. An investor can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as ‘anticipate,’ ‘estimate,’ ‘expect,’ ‘intend,’ ‘will,’ ‘project,’ ‘plan,’ ‘believe,’ ‘target’ and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future actions or operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements regarding market opportunity, ability to penetrate the market and expectations for growth. Such statements are based on current assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include risks described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those on the Form 10-Q expected to be filed on or about July 31, 2025. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and should not be unduly relied upon. iRhythm disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

About iRhythm Technologies
iRhythm is a leading digital health care company that creates trusted solutions that detect, predict, and prevent disease. Combining our Zio^® wearable biosensors and cloud-based data analytics with powerful proprietary algorithms, iRhythm distills data from millions of heartbeats into clinically actionable information. Through a relentless focus on patient care, our vision at Rhythm is to deliver better data, better insights, and better health for all.

About Lucem Health
Lucem Health helps healthcare providers accelerate disease detection and treatment using practical, responsible AI, so they can improve patients’ lives and increase the clinical and financial yield from today’s scarce care delivery resources. We envision a world in which clinicians detect problems before they become life-threatening and patients get world-class care, everywhere. Learn more at www.lucemhealth.com.

Media Contact
Kassandra Perry
irhythm@highwirepr.com

Investor Contact
Stephanie Zhadkevich
investors@irhythmtech.com

1. iRhythm internal estimate based on analysis of public and proprietary sources, including U.S. Census Bureau data, CDC healthcare utilization data, Medicare Public Use Files, IQVIA, Komodo Health, Definitive Healthcare, and peer-reviewed literature on arrhythmia prevalence, symptom presentation, and diagnostic pathways. Full source list available upon request.
2. What is an arrhythmia? National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, 2022. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/arrhythmias
3. Desai et al. Arrhythmias. StatPearls [Internet], 2023. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK558923/
4. Ataklte et al. Meta-analysis of ventricular premature complexes and their relation to cardiac mortality in general populations. The American Journal of Cardiology, 2013.
5. Bhave, P. D., & Soliman, E. Z. (2024). Should patients with diabetes be routinely screened for atrial fibrillation? Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, 22(1–3), 5–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779072.2024.2328645
6. Russo P, Nathan R, Pfeffer D, Kamdar S, Wright B, Boyle K. Incidence and Timing of Major Arrhythmias in T2D and CKD: A Real-World Analysis [poster presentation]. Presented at: American Diabetes Association (ADA) 85th Scientific Sessions; June 20–23, 2025; Chicago, IL, USA.
7. Russo P, Nathan R, Pfeffer D, Kamdar S, Wright B, Boyle K. Real-World Evidence on Health Care Resource Utilization and Economic Burden of Arrhythmias in Patients with Diabetes and COPD [poster presentation]. Presented at: American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions; November 16-18, 2024; Chicago, IL. Available at: https://s205.q4cdn.com/296879096/files/doc_events/2024/11/1/120-001752-003_DA_2024-AHA-Poster-iRhythmtech_RWE-HCRU-Arrhythmias_v2.pdf
8. Russo P, Nathan R, Pfeffer D, Poh J, Jha V, Singh H, Wright B, Boyle K. Real-World Evidence on Health Care Resource Utilization and Economic Burden of Arrhythmias in Patients with COPD [poster presentation]. Presented at: American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2025 International Conference; May 16–21, 2025; San Francisco, CA, USA.
9. The predictive-AI solution does not represent the functionality of any Zio branded medical device.
   

FAQ

What is the partnership between iRhythm (IRTC) and Lucem Health?

The partnership combines iRhythm's diagnostic service with Lucem Health's AI platform to develop predictive solutions for early arrhythmia detection in high-risk patients with conditions like Type 2 diabetes, CKD, COPD, and CAD.

How does iRhythm's new AI solution work for arrhythmia detection?

The solution analyzes patterns in clinical and EHR data to identify patients at elevated risk of arrhythmias, then uses iRhythm's Zio® ECG monitors for up to 14 days of continuous monitoring, with AI-powered analysis reviewed by cardiac technicians.

What is the market potential for iRhythm's new AI solution?

The solution targets an estimated 27 million undiagnosed patients in the U.S. who could benefit from proactive cardiac monitoring.

How much higher are healthcare costs for arrhythmia patients with comorbid conditions?

Patients with arrhythmias and conditions like Type 2 diabetes or COPD experience up to 2x higher hospitalization rates, 35-50% higher emergency care costs, and average annual healthcare expenses of $46,000 compared to $30,000 for those without arrhythmias.

Who are the target customers for iRhythm's new AI solution?

The solution is designed for ACOs, integrated health systems, payviders, and managed care organizations that take financial responsibility for care costs and focus on value-based care strategies.