The first ever cuff free blood pressure monitor won approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week.
The FDA granted Biobeat, the green light to market the company’s wrist watch and patch that measure blood oxygenation, heart rate, and blood pressure. This a great advancement because it allows for long-term monitoring without any restrictions. Patients suffering from chronic illnesses and senior citizens can now be monitored 24/7. Moreover, it identifies abnormal blood pressure in situations when a cuff-based meter is not appropriate or simply unavailable. It can be a life saver.
This approval marks the first time a cuff-less blood pressure monitor has been approved by the FDA. It opens up tremendous opportunities for remote monitoring of patients’ vital signs. Timely medical interventions can be done and lives saved.
No doubt, the Biobeat device will be used in clinics, hospitals, long-term care facilities, as well as-by patients at home.
Cuff Free: The Technology
The Biobeat technology is based on a reflective optical technique that is now used to detect blood volume changes within tissues.
A number of LED light sources emit various wavelengths of light into the tissue, while an algorithm analyzes the reflected light that returns. Thanks to the new signal processing system that the team built, they can effectively clean out most of the background noise in the signal and obtain the relevant data.