CONTINUOUS WEARABLE BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR

Sean Connell, Kyle Miller, Jay Pandit, and Jung-En Wu Bold Diagnostics, Evanston, IL

“My team is honored to be recognized out of such a competitive field. We are truly passionate about bringing our mobile health monitoring solution to market, and feel that recognition from the Tech Briefs competition will propel our efforts.”

Bold Diagnostics has developed a blood pressure monitoring system that is comfortable for patients and seamlessly integrates into their everyday lives. The low-cost monitor includes a set of wearable wristbands that uses optical biosensors to continuously measure blood pressure, and a smartphone application that uploads a report into the patient’s medical record for clinician review. The solution provides accurate measurements with greater frequency, enabling doctors to positively impact clinical outcomes with proper blood pressure management.

The wristbands calculate blood pressure based on Bold Diagnostics’ Differential Pulse Arrival Time (DPAT) technology. DPAT is based on the assertion that the pulse wave generated by a contracting heart arrives at the right arm before the left arm because of an inherent delay created by the anatomy of the aortic arch. Bold has further discovered that the difference in arrival times is an indicator of blood pressure. The DPAT technology has been implemented with a set of pulse waveform sensors that uses light emitting and detecting diodes to determine the difference in pulse wave arrival times between the right and left hands.

Bold has developed a working prototype and conducted preliminary clinical studies under an approved institutional review board (IRB) protocol that demonstrates proof of concept. The clinical study compared DPAT measurements at rest and in response to various environmental stressors known to affect blood pressure. The study demonstrated a consistent difference in pulse arrival times between the right and left hands, and a strong correlation between DPAT and blood pressure (±5 mmHg) in comparison to control measurements. Study results suggest DPAT is a viable method for continuously measuring blood pressure.

The company will focus on direct distribution to tertiary care centers for a price between $155 and $195, with anticipated market entry by 2018.

For more information, visit http://contest.techbriefs.com/medical_winner2016 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Infant Care System, A Therapeutic Wearable for Babies

Diego Delia, Clinton Allen, and Omar Mohammed, ApnoSystems, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Apnosystems Infant Care System (ICS) causes a sleeping infant who has ceased breathing to stir and resume breathing. The wearable device wirelessly integrates pulse oximetry with data gathering and a rescue stimulus.

For more information, visit http://contest.techbriefs.com/infant 

Disrupting Severe Sepsis with an Innovative Filter

Chris Jaynes and Jim Matson, Immunocept Medical Products, Denver, CO

The SeptiFlux™ hollow fiber hemofilter features a membrane filtration spectrum designed to control destructively amplified inflammation, which is the root cause of organ failure in brain-dead organ donors and severe sepsis patients. SeptiFlux is designed to work with all currently existing hospital hemofiltration machines.

For more information, visit http://contest.techbriefs.com/filter 

The cerVIA System — Automated, Accurate, and Accessible Cervical Cancer Screening

Ritish Patnaik, Stephanie Yang, Olachi Oleru, and Jahrane Dale, Luso Labs, Plano, TX

The cerVIA system integrates a custom camera scope with a cervical cancer lesion detection algorithm in a point-of-care device. Fitted for speculums and operated with any Android smartphone, it will offer automated, accurate, and accessible cervical cancer screening in low- and middle-income countries.

For more information, visit http://contest.techbriefs.com/cervia 

Medella Health

Harry Gandhi, Huayi Gao, and Maarij Baig, Medella Health, Ontario, Canada

Medella Health is developing contact lenses that continuously and non-invasively monitor health biomarkers and transmit the data to a mobile phone. They are starting with diabetes management, but can expand this to many other health indicators.

For more information, visit http://contest.techbriefs.com/medella