New mobile phone device to monitor blood pressure in patients

SmiLe Incubator’s new member company, Acorai, is developing an AI-based medical device that could become the first non-invasive monitor of blood pressure within the heart ventricles. The product combines special sensors with the patient’s mobile phone and is intended for use in the home environment by people who suffer from heart failure.

    It has the potential to sharply reduce the number of hospital readmissions for such patients.

 

Heart failure is a serious and life-threatening condition. About half of patients treated for this diagnosis become acutely ill once again within six months, resulting in readmission to the hospital. This situation entails high costs, significant suffering and mortality.

But 75 percent of such relapses could have been avoided if the worsening condition of the patient had been detected in time.

 

A slow increase in ventricular pressure – the blood pressure in the chambers of the heart – is a known indicator of relapse. This process usually occurs over a period of about 30 days and the earlier it is discovered, the better the patient prognosis.

 

Filip Peters came up with the idea of a device that does not need surgical implantation, as is the case for monitors currently in use. The product consists of a mobile phone case with expanded functionality and the phone. This solution allows the monitor to remain small since it makes use of the telephone’s screen, battery and processor. The company uses a novel combination of four sensor technologies and artificial intelligence to analyze the readings. The actual reading takes five minutes and is performed by placing the phone against the patient’s chest. Information from the reading is sent to the doctor, who can communicate with the patient by phone and arrange for any necessary measures.

 

The product is suitable for use by the patient in the home environment and is sensitive enough to recognize an elevation in blood pressure at an extremely early stage, thereby enabling a reduction in the number of relapses. Filip Peters is developing the product together with the company’s two other founders, app developer Jakob Gelberg and Kasper Bourdette, who is in charge of marketing.

 

The company plans to start clinical trials in May at Sahlgrenska Hospital and Skåne University Hospital in Sweden, with about 700 heart failure patients enrolled in the study.

 

“We are at the phase where product development will soon be completed, after which preparations will be made to commercialize the product. We view SmiLe as an opportunity to gain broader insight into the Life Science industry and to establish valuable collaborations to accelerate our growth,” says Filip Peters, CEO of Acorai.

 

“Acorai’s product has the potential to become extremely relevant by saving both lives and money within health services. SmiLe will support and assist the company to optimally develop through help from our experts, training and international partnerships,” says Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator, which is based at Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden.

 

 

For more information, please contact: Filip Peters, CEO of Acorai, +46 (0)708 756 781, filip.peters@acorai.com.

For more information about SmiLe, please contact: Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator, +46 (0)734 000 433, ebba@smileincubator.life.

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