Chronolife, a Paris-based AI-powered health tech company, announced the commercial launch of Nexkin™, a CE-marked washable smart T-shirt that monitors six key physiological parameters to enable prevention, risk reduction, and remote monitoring. The company also announced the closing of new fundraising from Paris-based startup studio and investment fund iBionext, French insurance company Adrea and Swiss family office Celeste Management to boost its commercial and industrial phase. The amount secured was not publicly disclosed.
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The Nexkin platform uses cutting-edge wearable electronics to integrate 10 biometric scanners into a comfortable, machine-washable T-shirt capable of continuously recording a user's electrocardiogram, abdominal and thoracic breathing, body temperature, physical activity, and pulmonary impedance. Data from the shirt is transmitted via Bluetooth to the user's smartphone, where data from multiple sensors can be integrated using Chronolife's unique HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time Surfaces) algorithms to deliver accurate and actionable health insights, which can subsequently be downloaded or transferred to secure servers for review by health professionals, reports Chronolife in a press release.
The T-shirt is comfortable enough for round-the-clock use; the battery lasts 24 hours and can be fully recharged in a few hours. Combining AI-powered real-time analytics and next-generation wearable sensors, the Nexkin T-shirt has potential uses in senior care, occupational health and safety, sports rehabilitation, military training, and performance management.
“The Nexkin T-shirt makes accurate, unobtrusive continuous health monitoring both affordable and convenient across a wide range of industries and functionalities, from pharmaceutical testing to senior care,” said Laurent Vandebrouck, CEO of Chronolife. “By combining wearable electronics with advanced AI-powered analytics, we're delivering biometric monitoring capabilities that will revolutionize the way researchers and healthcare professionals will eventually interact with patients.”
The commercial launch of Nexkin will allow Chronolife’s clients and partners to explore ways to deploy and test the technology in clinical and other settings, including healthcare organizations, insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies.
Chronolife also received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval this summer, certifying that the Nexkin shirt's Bluetooth connectivity meets all U.S. regulatory requirements. Nexkin should receive medical certification in Europe beginning 2020 and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in the U.S. by the end of 2020.
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“AI and wearable technologies are dramatically changing the healthcare and research sectors, and Chronolife is at the very forefront of that movement,” said Bernard Gilly, executive chairman of iBionext. “This commercial launch is just the beginning: the potential applications for the Nexkin T-shirt are almost endless.”
