Aktiia, a healthcare technology company, has recently received CE mark in Europe for its calibration-free technology CALFREE. This technology allows blood pressure data to be collected using inputs from optical sensors commonly found in smartwatches and commercial smartphones’ cameras. By transforming any smartwatch or smartphone into a medical-grade BP monitor, Aktiia hopes to enable large-scale optical blood pressure monitoring.
Dr. Josep Sola, CTO and co-founder of Aktiia, described this achievement as a major disruption in the field. The approval of CALFREE will allow Aktiia to offer its medical-grade optical blood pressure monitoring to third-party companies developing consumer devices like smartwatches, smartphone cameras and smart bands. This technology has significant implications for wearable and mobile industry strategies and public health, as it can facilitate large-scale hypertension diagnosis and management campaigns.
Aktiia was founded in 2018 as a spinout of CSEM and offers a wrist-worn optical blood pressure monitoring device that continuously analyzes blood pressure, heart rate, activity, and sleep data. The company launched its automated blood pressure monitoring system in 2021 after receiving CE mark. While the system initially required monthly calibration, wearers can now gather insights from the readings and view them via Aktiia’s mobile app.
By analyzing the datasets collected from over 70,000 users, Aktiia has developed extensive foundation models of blood pressure to advance the collective understanding of this important health metric. In February 2021, the company completed a funding round of CHF 27 million ($30 million), just a year after securing $6.1 million in funding.
