SANTA CLARA, Calif. — HeartBeam said a peer-reviewed study published in JACC: Advances showed that an algorithm combining data from its portable ECG device with patient symptoms and risk factors could help identify heart attack risk in patients with chest pain.
The Santa Clara-based medical technology company said the publication supports the scientific foundation for a planned expansion of the HeartBeam System into heart attack detection.
The article, titled “Acute Coronary Syndrome Risk Prediction Using Portable Cable-Free ECG Device Combined With Clinical Risk Assessment,” appears in the June 2026 issue of JACC: Advances, a journal of the American College of Cardiology. The study was led by Alexei Shvilkin, MD, PhD, a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
HeartBeam said the proof-of-concept study examined whether a risk score combining HeartBeam ECG data, patient cardiovascular risk factors and symptoms could identify patients with chest pain who were at high risk for heart attack compared with an expert physician panel.
“This study is an important piece of the scientific foundation we are building toward heart attack detection as a future indication for the HeartBeam System,” said Robert Eno, chief executive officer of HeartBeam. “The results demonstrate that a clinical-grade ECG provided by our device, combined with a patient’s clinical history and symptoms, can deliver risk assessment comparable to physician evaluation with a traditional 12-lead ECG. In practical terms, a patient experiencing chest pain could use the HeartBeam System at home, reducing hesitation to seek medical help, reducing time to intervention and potentially improving outcomes in the event of a heart attack.”
HeartBeam said one of the major challenges in heart attack care is reducing the time between symptom onset and arrival at a hospital. Patients with chest pain often delay seeking care because they are uncertain whether their symptoms indicate a serious problem.
The company said standard 12-lead ECGs remain a key tool for assessing heart attack risk but typically require equipment and trained personnel available in clinical settings. HeartBeam is developing a credit card-sized, cable-free ECG device intended to provide cardiac data outside the hospital.
The prospective study enrolled 212 emergency department patients with chest pain, with 184 patients included in the final analysis. When the algorithm used a single ECG reading from the HeartBeam device combined with patient risk factors and symptoms, it achieved an area under the curve, or AUC, of 86.5%, a measure of diagnostic performance.
When a personal, symptom-free baseline ECG recorded on the same HeartBeam device was available for comparison, the AUC increased to 92.9%. HeartBeam said that finding is important because physicians reviewing HeartBeam System data would have access to a patient’s baseline ECG for comparison.
The study also found that the algorithm had a lower false-positive rate than the physician panel, at 19.8% compared with 55.6%.
The authors concluded that combining clinical risk factors, symptom characteristics and ECG data from the HeartBeam System into a single algorithm may support clinically meaningful acute coronary syndrome risk stratification in the early stages of chest pain and could help shorten the time between symptom onset and treatment.
HeartBeam said heart attack detection could represent a major expansion opportunity, citing more than 20 million high-risk patients in the U.S. The company said the study, along with its ongoing ALIGN-ACS pilot study in Europe, advances its clinical program.
