Sensoria Health, makers of wearable technology designed to improve healthcare, has a new Smart Band that tracks key vitals and could help detect potential COVID-19 symptoms.
Redmond, Wash.-based Sensoria Health is a spinoff from Sensoria, the smart sports apparel startup whose garments track movements and measure how well users are running or walking. Sensoria was founded in 2011 by CEO Davide Vigano and his former Microsoft colleagues, and the health company launched three years ago.
The new $69 Smart Band measures body temperature, heart rate and blood oxygenation while also monitoring sleep quality and steps. It will be available later this month in the U.S. and Europe.
In a post on LinkedIn, Vigano writes about the importance of blood oxygenation specifically, and why some physicians believe measuring the oxygen level in blood is a critical step in preventing a serious progression of COVID-19 pneumonia.
Vigano references the findings of Dr. Richard Levitan, an emergency room doctor from New Hampshire who wrote about treating COVID pneumonia in the early days of the pandemic. Levitan is the brother of Seattle venture capitalist Dan Levitan and the two teamed on a project to help COVID patients breathe easier.
“Oxygen saturation in healthy individuals (SpO2) should range from 95-100%, so a healthy person could use the Sensoria Smart Band to regularly monitor trends on his or her own measurements conveniently at home and contact a health provider immediately should they notice a visible drop in oxygen saturation trends,” Vigano wrote.
Most traditional pulse oximeter devices work on the tip of the finger, but Sensoria wanted to use a different solution so that users’ would not have their daily routine interrupted. Vigano said Sensoria reached out to its research, sensor and manufacturing partners in the United States and Asia and worked with them to “create a minimalistic and comfortable form factor.”
He said the technology is not exclusive to Sensoria, “but we are going to be among the first to market, that’s for sure.”
The Smart Band can be paired via Bluetooth to a companion app that provides detailed analytics based on measurements collected over time. A cloud-based remote monitoring system can also feed information to an optional employer dashboard, so businesses or healthcare professionals can react quickly to updated information, while privacy is protected.
Last week Amazon released its own health band called Halo that measures body fat, voice tone, sleep quality, and activity.
