This fully cuffless blood pressure monitor connects to your Android phone
You may not have heard of Valencell before, but it’s the company behind many health sensors inall kinds of Android smartwatchesand fitness trackers, helping you measure your heart rate and more while working out. DuringCES 2023, the company decided to leap out of the business-to-business market and introduce a product for consumers with its own branding. The company revealed a new health device that can connect to your phone and measure your blood pressure on your fingertip, all without requiring a bulky and uncomfortable cuff.
The new, still nameless device is supposed to focus solely on helping people recognize high blood pressure. It’s based on a technology similar to heart rate meters using PPG, or Photoplethysmography. The device shines pulses of light on the finger’s skin to measure your blood flow. Using algorithms, AI, and a ton of data from a test group of over 7,000 people, a measurement is taken. Results are displayed both on the device itself and your phone via Bluetooth.
What’s new here is that the device doesn’t have to be calibrated with a regular cuff first. It works right out of the box, though presumably, you need to enter some physical data before (age, weight, gender, and height are needed to determine the blood pressure).
While we will still have to wait until much later this year, with FDA clearance scheduled for “late 2023,” the device and its accompanying app have the potential to make blood pressure measurements much less of a hassle. This would benefits thousands of patients who suffer from high blood pressure and other related heart issues, and Valencell plans to turn its app into a more fully featured hub for managing high blood pressure. There will be options to track historical data, view trends, and download and share the findings with medical specialists.
The blood pressure sensor is expected to be sold over the counter at $99 once it’s all cleared to launch.
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