OneRhythm was built because the silence around arrhythmia’s psychological toll has done real damage - and because one person who survived it decided the community that shared his story deserved something built in return.
The Origin
I see problems. I fix them. That’s not a tagline - it’s a diagnosis. A brain rewired by adverse experiences into a pattern-recognition engine that never fully powers down. When you grow up in an environment where safety isn’t a given, your nervous system learns to scan. Constantly. For threats, for exits, for the variable in the equation that doesn’t balance.
And then arrhythmia entered the equation. And for the first time in my life, I had a problem I could not solve.
Arrhythmia does not care how smart you are. It does not care how disciplined you are. It sits in your chest like a tenant who pays no rent and breaks everything it touches, and there is nothing you can do to evict it on your own terms.
7 trips to the EP lab at Pepin Heart Institute
4 RF ablations
2 procedures canceled in pre-op
3 ICD shocks
3 million extra heartbeats a year
10 years
The bear metaphor was never about the arrhythmia alone. The bear was the constant fight-or-flight state that nobody could see. The racing heart at 2 AM that looked normal to everyone else. The ICD shocks that permamently change your outlook on time. The adrenaline surges that your cardiologist never asked about because they were measuring QRS duration, not quality of life.
On December 9, 2024, my Farapulse ablation worked. The bear disappeared.
Healing from the physical disease did not erase a decade of psychological damage. It gave me the clarity to see it. And the obligation to do something about it - not just for myself, but for every person still inside those numbers.
And I didn’t know it. Because nobody told me.
88.3%
of arrhythmia patients report moderate to severe anxiety
Nature Scientific Reports (2025), N=222
1 in 5
symptomatic AFib patients reported suicidal thoughts
AHA / Royal Melbourne Hospital
3.2×
mortality risk from elevated PTSD in ICD patients
Circ: Arrhythmia & Electrophysiology
These are not edge cases. They are the norm. And mental health screening is still not standard practice in most EP clinics.
I brought people together for a living. In healthcare sales, I learned one formula: credibility, commonality, problem, solution. When you connect the right people around the right problem, outcomes change.
OneRhythm is that formula applied to the crisis that almost ended me.
A decade of ARVC, an ICD, three shocks, seven EP lab visits, five ablations. I am not theorizing about this burden. I carried it.
I shared my journey on Reddit. It has now been shared by hundreds of others. Not because my story is unique, but because it isn’t. Every share was a hand raised in the dark sying - me too
88.3% anxiety prevalence. 20% suicidal ideation. 3.2× mortality from untreated PTSD. And mental health screening is still not standard practice in most EP clinics.
A community-powered, privacy-preserving, open-source platform that brings arrhythmia patients together - not around a product, but around a shared truth: you are not alone in this.
OneRhythm gives arrhythmia patients a place to be seen. Not clinically. Humanly.
Users contribute de-identified ECG images that become tiles in a collective heart artwork. Every heartbeat, no matter how irregular, is part of something beautiful. The mosaic is not diagnostic - it is a visible refusal of the isolation that arrhythmia imposes.
Based on your self-reported profile - your diagnosis, your treatment history, your lived experience - OneRhythm returns educational content and suggested questions for your next cardiology appointment. The kind of information I wish someone had given me during my decade in the dark.
ECG uploads are de-identified and not retained beyond processing. Consent is explicit, granular, and revocable. The architecture is open-source, MIT-licensed, and auditable. Asking people to trust you with their most sensitive data is a privilege, not a right.
I see people everywhere seeking hope in their battle with arrhythmia. It is not easy to find it alone.
If you are reading this and you are in the thick of it - if the bear is on your chest and nobody around you can see it - I want you to hear this:
You are not defective. You are not broken beyond repair. You are a human being carrying a weight that was never meant to be carried alone, battling an enemy that the world cannot see, in a body that is fighting a war it didn’t choose.
Pain is not a competition. The person with one PVC an hour who is terrified deserves the same compassion as the person with three million a year who has gone numb. OneRhythm will never rank suffering. It will always validate it.
Matthew Adams
Founder, OneRhythm
Bear Fighting Jedi.
Builder. Loud When Needed.
Ad Astra Per Aspera
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) or the Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741)
OneRhythm is an educational resource and community platform. It is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, interpret ECGs, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and it does not recommend treatment. The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
