A small startup company, Echo Labs, is working to integrate a new level of health monitoring into wearable technology.
Echo Labs provides health care organizations with analytics to allow for better care of their patients, decrease hospital admissions, and reduce spending. Its first generation wearable offers health information by creating continuous vital sign tracking.
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The company is now working on its newest device. The company states that the new tracker will be able to determine what’s going on inside the bloodstream, which is a first for wrist-based wearables. The tracker utilizes optical sensors and spectrometry to measure and analyze blood composition and flow. It also monitors heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and full blood gas panels.
The company explains that the band measures blood content with a light and a proprietary algorithm. Basically, it sends electromagnetic waves through human tissue, and then measures the reflection of varying light frequencies in order to find the concentration of molecules in the blood.
“The wearable and sensor are the gateway to understanding the state of the body at any point in time. We can identify deterioration 3 to 5 days before it happens,” the company states.
The “glucose problem” could be solved soon
According to Echo Labs’ Co-Founder, Elad Ferber, the algorithm is strong enough to continuously measure blood composition, whether a wearer is running or sitting. He also believes his team can crack the glucose problem in a few years.
Pierre-Jean Cobut, also a Co-Founder, and Ferber began their company three years ago after meeting at Stanford business school. Their team consists of top medical researchers and experts in biological signals acquisition & analysis, machine learning, and statistical signal processing.
“We wanted to provide users with real insights, with things that they can act on,” explains Cobut.
