Digital health start-up VitalSignum is on track to launch Beat2Phone, a small mobile device that detects arrhythmia by measuring the patient’s ECG, with the first production batch due to be on the market early next month.
The device has been tested over three years with good results, on heart disease patients at the University Hospital of Turku and the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa.
Top athletes suffering from heart problems and other individuals have also tested the device.
The portable device precisely measures ECG and heart rate variability (HRV). VitalSignum intends to get approval as a medical device, meaning it could then be used for preoperative and postoperative monitoring of cardiac patients at home.
“Arrhythmia tends to remain undiagnosed,” said Timo Varpula CTO of VitalSignum, who developed the technology while at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The new device can easily be concealed under clothes and sends data on arrhythmia directly to a mobile phone.
Beat2Phone, comprises software which runs on Android phones and a sensor which fits onto a flexible chest belt. It measures ECG signals at an extremely high resolution, identifying individual heart beats and confirming the interval between consecutive beats. The device also includes position and activity sensors.
VitalSignum says the number of potential users will grow as the population ages. About 5 per cent of the population suffers from cardiac arrhythmia, which is detected in around 12 per cent of people over the age of 60.
Read more: http://www.beat2phone.com
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