For BiancaMed, huge potential lies in the fact that our platform can be readily integrated into a cell phone handset and enable it to carry out the following unique functions:

●         On-the-spot measurement of heart rate and respiration

●         Portable fitness monitoring

●         Activity measurement and calorie counter – link with your diet plan

●         A night-time sleep monitor

●         Remote health monitoring at home – providing reassurance that you are maintaining health and, when necessary alert a monitoring centre.

Biancamed is proud to be a partner of the National Digital Research Centre in Dublin in the HeartPhone project. This is developing a web-based system to support the management of chronic illnesses, using mobile technology in the home to measure and report on vital patient data including blood pressure, weight and medication levels. The project will allow medical professionals to get real-time information on patients, presenting the prospect of more timely intervention.

The move away from expensive invasive hospital treatments towards affordable light touch home screening, diagnosis and prevention, which is increasingly covered by social security reimbursements.

However, sleep has remained untouched by these trends. Sleep is increasingly under- stood to be a major part of health, alongside diet and exercise, with sleeplessness linked clinically to a host of more serious conditions. These conditions include obesity1, diabetes2 and heart diseases including Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)3 and hyper-tension as well as a number of psychiatric disorders such as alcoholism and depression.

But tracking sleep has remained mostly hospital-based and limited to a reduced number of serious cases. Monitoring sleep is important because:


Subjective sleep tracking can’t be relied upon, especially for OSA as sleep apnea events remain mostly unconscious.

Cognitive-based therapy (sleep training) has been proved to be at least as effective as sleep drugs at getting people to sleep, minus the side effects. This is possible only with an objective tracking of sleep and sleep efficiency.

Measurable sleep improvement is a major goal of a host of products and drugs such as sleep drugs and the Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) used for the treatment of sleep apnea;

For patients with chronic diseases such as CHF or with metabolic syndrome (a condition leading to diabetes), sleep and respiration during sleep is a leading indicator of condition deterioration and needs to be reported to their doctors.

The challenge of an increasing prevalence in chronic conditions, a fast-growing obesity crisis and rapid aging of the population, will force healthcare to migrate from traditional institutional settings (such as hospitals) directly into peoples’ everyday environments, including the home.

Chronic conditions such as heart failure, diabetes, asthma, Alzheimer’s disease and COPD are known to cause changes in sleep, heart-rate and breathing during sleep, which until now could only be captured with sophisticated in-hospital tests.

Printer Friendly Version