Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University, which is leading the study, hope to understand whether they can “detect irregular heartbeats” that can cause atrial fibrillation while customers do their shopping via sensors fitted to shopping trolleys.

On April 26, the team launched a four-month pilot to prove the concept, in partnership with Lloydspharmacy, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, the University of Liverpool and Sainsbury’s.

The first two Lloydspharmacy branches participating in the pilot are located in Liverpool and the Wirral respectively. Two different stores in Liverpool will be used for the final six weeks of the pilot, a Lloydspharmacy spokesperson told C+D earlier this week (May 18).

A spokesperson for the Liverpool John Moores told C+D that university engineers have fitted sensors to “a couple of” trolleys at the two Sainsbury’s currently live with the trial.

So far, 500 people have shopped using the modified trolleys, but the researchers need to recruit up to 2,000 people to prove that they are reliably able to monitor customers' heart rates using this method, they said.

Lloydspharmacy teams to give pulse checks

The recruits need to hold the trolley’s handle for about 30 seconds to have their heartbeat detected.

When irregular heartbeats are identified, the participants are invited to see the instore Lloydspharmacy team “for a quick pulse check and are then referred back to the research team for any necessary follow up”, the Lloydspharmacy spokesperson said.

“With atrial fibrillation diagnoses currently reliant on a person noticing something unusual about their heartbeat, this research could prove invaluable if successful, while highlighting the role pharmacy can play in supporting with more intervention services,” the Lloydspharmacy spokesperson added.

Around 1.2 million people have atrial fibrillation in the UK and the problem can be identified with a simple pulse check, according to the researchers.

Last year, Lloydspharmacy launched a private health check service priced at £25 in 500 of its branches, as part of which pharmacists can also carry out a cardiac risk assessment to estimate the likelihood that patients will develop heart disease.