AliveCor has added blood pressure testing data to its iOS network Kardia app, the companion app for AliveCor’s FDA-cleared smartphone electrocardiogram device. The blood pressure component has been added through a collaboration with Omron Healthcare, according to a news release.
The app integrates data from Omron’s Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure cuff. The rationale for pairing the capabilities in one app is that heart problems such as Atrial Fibrillation and hypertension elevate stroke risk. Putting data from these tests together will make it easier to do remote monitoring for heart function and for blood pressure with the goal of catching potential problems earlier.
AliveCor’s smartphone-enabled ECG and Kardia app have been the subject of several medical studies AliveCor CEO Vic Gundotra noted in a phone interview. Clinical validation is viewed as essential to getting physician support for digital health applications. The latest addition to its platform came in response to physician demand.
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“Physicians have been asking us for this for a long time,” said Gundotra, who joined the company last year. “We have an API so programmatically health systems can integrate the data. So far, health systems are doing it themselves but how they do it varies dramatically depending on the health system.” Gundotra added that health systems can also use the app to help put consumers in charge of their own data.
The company has been working on ways to expand applications for its product. Earlier this year, AliveCor added a medical-grade EKG band for the Apple Watch. Gundotra said that in the future, the business plans to add voice analysis to detect signs of stress when people speak.
Acknowledging that many people suffering from heart conditions and hypertension include customers in their 50s and 60s, Gundotra claimed, “We are the poster child of succeeding in the digital health space for older adults.”
Photo: AliveCor
