Providing independent clinical excellence since 2005
Posted on Monday December 1, 2025 in Metabolic Health
Recommended Home Monitoring Tools and Reading for Patients
Patients often ask about home monitoring equipment—such as ECG devices, blood pressure monitors, glucose tracking apps—as well as useful books to read. Increasingly, doctors are also encouraging individuals to pay closer attention to their waistlines, since visceral adipose tissue (VAT) plays a crucial role in long-term health.
It therefore makes sense to monitor not only your blood pressure, weight, and ECG (if you are prone to arrhythmia), but also your waist circumference and strength. Body composition scales can also be a valuable part of routine self-care at home.
The following list of recommended tools and devices has been compiled by a single cardiologist and does not represent an endorsement by the Surrey Cardiovascular Clinic (SCVC) faculty or reflect a consensus of medical opinion. Patients are encouraged to ask their own physicians for individualised recommendations.
However to support a self-care approach, I have set out below a curated list of products that my patients find useful for home use. Where there is more than one option in a category, items are listed in ascending order of price at the time of writing. For smaller devices—particularly those included in SCVC’s cardiometabolic and general cardiology outpatient services—our team will also aim to keep stock available for purchase or loan, and can assist with set-up and usage.
Please note: this page is based on my own experience and that of my patients. It does not constitute formal guidance or recommendation from Surrey Cardiovascular Clinic Ltd.
Disclosure: If a purchase is made via the Amazon links within 24 hours of a reader clicking the link, the data processing and medical publishing company MedicalSpace Ltd (which I am a majority shareholder) may receive a small sale commission (typically 1–5%) as a participant in the Amazon Associates Programme. In return, I commit to reviewing and updating this list of recommended products on a regular basis.
Dr Edward Leatham
KardiaMobile 1-Lead Personal ECG Heart Rate Monitor –
Record ECGs at Home, Detects Atrial Fibrillation, Trusted by the NHS, Results in 30 Seconds
(Requires a smart phone)
Emay 1-Lead Personal ECG Heart Rate Monitor
Record ECGs at Home, Detects Atrial Fibrillation, Results in 30 Seconds
Useful for patients with no or limited smartphone capabilities. (Requires a smart phone or PC to transmit results).
The Hume body pod are the bioimpedance scales we use for our cardiometabolic clinic at SCVC.
We offer our patients various programmes where we supply the Body Pod scales, train the patient and then oversee their metabolic progress using the Hume Connect platform. The Hume Body Pod can be purchased online direct from Hume for home use, alternatively get in touch using our enquiries button to find out about our Hume Connect programmes.
Recognised as being even more important than muscle mass as we age, your skeletal muscle strength is directly linked to your metabolic health status and is an easy metric for anytone to track at home each week, particularly if using GLP-1 mimetics, as strength not muscle mass is the most powerful indicator of muscular health and long term prognosis.
The two techniques used at SCVC which I advocate everyone should consider monitoring their upper arm strength using a Dynameter shown below and lower body strength by the sit to stand test.
Available via our e-commerce partner Medicalspace, Dr Shape is our groundbreaking app that uses AI and Whatsapp to provide the user with an immediate synopsis of any food plate. Following registration you will receive a daily caloric and macro nutrient goal from Dr Shape’s food bot allowing you use the app to check how you perform against a personalised target. This is ideal for people that wish to improve metabolic health, lose VAT and excess weight. SCVC includes a Dr Shape subscription with our 6 month VAT-reduction programme and also with the 8 month GLP-1 mimetic metabolic reset.
You can also order Dr Shape here.
This is a medical grade test that combines food and lifestyle analysis (daily photos and log uploads are required) with a 10-14 days period of continuous glucose monitoring. The test is reported by a medical doctor and will define whether there is a carbohydrate sensitive phenotype. We also classify the glucotype and current glucose profile agianst our benchmark standard.
For patients that simply want to assess their glucose response to food intake- a CGM and some know how may be all that you need.
The Freestyle Libre 2 will give you a good idea of your glucotype, however will miss transient spikes (as samples every 15 minutes)
The Freestyle Libre 3 samples every minute, so won’t miss short glucose spikes, but it is pricier!
Abbot have EU license for their Lingo platform for prediabetics, which is also very well suited to any non diabetics who have a tendency to ‘spike’ their blood glucose – a term we label as ‘Carbohydrate Sensitive Phenotype’ or CSP.
We encourage these patients to use CGM to guide food choices and through biofeedback improve their glucose and insulin levels. These devices are recommended to any of our patients with CSP attending GLP-1 mimetic and VAT-reduction clinics, because glucose spikes drive insulin spikes that drive fat storage, so minimising glucose spikes helps lower VAT. This is especially important when weaning off GLP-1 mimetics, when insulin sensitivity becomes lowered. If this is not recognized and dealt with rebound to the pre-treatment weight ( set point weight) becomes more more likely.
SCVC offers a Lingo Plus 2-4 week package where the patient attends SCVC for a 30 min appointment with our nurse to fit the CGM, explain how it works and how to get the best out of the programme. The package includes a medical report at end, based on a patient administered questionnaire and analysis of the glucose data the patient sends in at the end of the programme.
N-of-1 is a 12 month patient diary based on the shared care booklet used in SCVC’s Cardiometabolic VAT-reduction clinic, for cardiac patients with high VAT who are under supervision to reach a metabolically healthier VAT volume, with or without GLP-1 mimetic injections.
This global best seller is an eye-opener. It explains glucose as fuel and its role in our metabolism along with where the human race has gone wrong in nutrition. The book includes many ‘glucose hacks’ that anyone with non diabetic hyperglycaemia or carbohydrate sensitive phenotype (CSP) may find useful optimise their diet to improve health.
Gary Taubes is a well-respected forensic journalist who spent year researching diabetes and the food industry obsession with fats. This book is fascinating read for anyone with an interest in nutrition and certainly explains the history behind the antifat/ pro carbohydrate lobby. It will also explain why there has been a move back to including fats, especially diary, eggs and unsaturated fats, are now considered to essential parts of a healthy diet, even if you have a raised blood LDL Cholesterol.
In cardiometabolic medicine, muscle is not a cosmetic tissue but a metabolic organ. Evidence consistently shows that strength, not muscle mass, predicts insulin resistance, cardiovascular risk, and survival. Many older adults are not losing muscle tissue — they are losing muscle function, and that is the pathology that matters.
Annual health screenings are a valuable investment in employee well-being, offering significant benefits for both employees and employers. The HMRC’s tax exemption makes these screenings financially attractive, allowing companies to offer meaningful health benefits cost-effectively. Advanced medical technologies, such as AI-driven CT scans, enhance early detection capabilities, providing further value.
N-of-1 medicine shifts the focus from population averages to personal biology. This blog series explores how individuals can run simple, safe self-experiments — using themselves as the control — to test plausible health hypotheses, track meaningful outcomes, and discover what genuinely improves their own health and wellbeing over time.
Measuring your waist isn’t about shape or clothing size. It’s a simple health check that reflects harmful visceral fat around the organs. Measuring the narrowest point can miss risk. For meaningful results, waist must be measured at a fixed anatomical point and tracked consistently over time.