Aktiia, the global leader in continuous blood pressure monitoring, today announced that it is bringing its 24/7 Blood Pressure Monitor to the United States, delivering the next generation of clinical wearables specifically designed to meet the needs of both patients and physicians.
Aktiia’s Optical Blood Pressure Monitoring (OBPM®) algorithms leverage optical sensors worn on the wrist and provide blood pressure values using Photoplethysmography (PPG) to analyze the changing diameter of the arteries occurring at each heartbeat. This optical measurement is done automatically, so users are not aware and stressed, and do not have to interrupt their day or their sleep to take a measurement.
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Aktiia’s 24/7 blood pressure monitor automatically gathers over 100x the data and has over 10x the engagement of other blood pressure monitors. The wearable’s wrist-based optical sensor measures around the clock, providing data that can be instantly viewed in a mobile app and easily shared with a physician or family member.
In the United States, nearly 50% of adults, about 116 million people, have high blood pressure. Of these, up to 75% do not have their blood pressure under control. This ongoing hypertension epidemic is the number one cause of major cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke, and leads to more than half a million unnecessary deaths every year in the US alone, according to a press release.
Recent large-scale studies have demonstrated that the more consistently a patient stay in their target blood pressure range, the lower their risk of heart attack and strokes.
Aktiia’s solution improves patient engagement, with current users checking their blood pressure on average 15 to 20 times per week, versus 1 to 2 times with traditional blood pressure cuffs.
Aktiia’s co-founders spent 17 years developing its game-changing technology, which has since been validated in multiple clinical studies. In addition to endorsement by leading experts in hypertension management, Aktiia is now also an official partner of the International Society of Hypertension and the World Heart Foundation.
Aktiia is coming to the United States via a landmark study with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a top 10 hospital for cardiology with one of the world’s most innovative hypertension clinics. Aktiia is sponsoring the COOL-BP (Continual vs. Occasional Long-Term BP) study within the Remote Hypertension Program, to be conducted by Dr. Naomi Fisher, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of BWH’s Hypertension Service, and a consultant and advisor to Aktiia.
Dr. Fisher states: “Hypertension affects nearly half of Americans, every hour of every day. Yet current measurement devices only capture a brief snapshot of overall blood pressure, and they are burdensome to use. The COOL-BP study will test an optical cuffless technology in BWH’s remote hypertension management program. An innovation that automatically provides blood pressure readings continually through days and nights holds tremendous promise in our efforts to control hypertension, both for individuals and for global health.”
In addition to the study at BWH, Aktiia also will be available for introduction and demonstration at CES 2022 at ShowStoppers January 5 from 6 – 10 pm in Las Vegas.
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Aktiia was founded in Switzerland in May 2018. The startup has some of the world’s leading scientific and technical experts in optical blood pressure monitoring. The core technology was first developed over decades of research at the prestigious Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), under a team lead by Aktiia co-founders, Dr. Mattia Bertschi and Dr. Josep Sola. In late 2021, Aktiia raised a $17.5M Series A round of funding, led by UK-based venture capital firm Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit).
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