CHELMSFORD, Mass. - ZOLL, an Asahi Kasei company that manufactures medical devices and related software solutions, announced the complete U.S. rollout of its next generation garment for the LifeVest wearable cardioverter defibrillator (WCD). With continuous innovation and enhancements for patient comfort, this marks the third advancement of the LifeVest garment over the last five years.
Peter A. Brady, MD, Vice President of Clinical Affairs for ZOLL Cardiac Management Solutions, said, "The next generation LifeVest garment is a significant step forward in patient comfort and usability while maintaining market-leading clinical performance and safety. We are committed to continuous innovation to help patients feel confident while staying protected. Now, we’ve made the LifeVest garment even more comfortable.”
The newest LifeVest garment builds upon progressive advancements over the last five years, with features designed to support patients in their daily lives outside of the hospital. Enhanced features include lightweight, athleisure-inspired performance-wear fabric, soft plush straps, flat-lock stitching, and the largest range of garment sizes, fitting chest measurements of 26”-56”.
LifeVest continues to set the standard for WCD performance:
- LifeVest ranks first in patient compliance at a consistent 23.4+ hours/day (median) based on peer-reviewed publications and real-world data, most recently validated in SCD-PROTECT (2025), a study of nearly 20,000 consecutive real-world patients.
- In SCD-PROTECT, patients also experienced extremely low rates of inappropriate shocks (0.5% of patients) and discontinuation due to skin irritation (0.3% of patients).
Continuous LifeVest garment innovation is just one example of how ZOLL continues to lead the WCD category:
- More clinicians and patients are choosing a LifeVest WCD with growing recognition of the need for sudden cardiac death (SCD) protection for newly diagnosed heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction.
- LifeVest is designed with integrated, easy-to-reach response buttons, allowing conscious patients to delay unnecessary shocks. The recent SCD-PROTECT study demonstrates that LifeVest patients experience a low rate of inappropriate shocks that is unmatched in literature.
- ZOLL pioneered AI for WCDs, with an AI-enhanced algorithm introduced in 2018 that reduced false alarms to a median of zero at 90 days.
- >98% of people in the U.S. have in-network commercial access to LifeVest. For more than 20 years, ZOLL has advocated for patients, securing broadest WCD coverage across Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, and commercial payers.
