The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) awarded Dynocardia, Inc. a $499,881 Project Grant under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.837) to complete the verification and validation (V&V) of their production-grade Vitrack hospital device. Vitrack is a wrist-wearable, cuff-less device that utilizes proprietary optomechanical sensor and computer vision technology to provide accurate, continuous, and non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, overcoming...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865) provides $237,827 to Brigham & Women's Hospital Inc. to develop a wearable, non-invasive optical device for continuous blood pressure monitoring in neonates. The device, called CNAP-FlexNIRS, will use near-infrared spectroscopy and photoplethysmography to collect high-resolution pulsatile waveforms and...
Ovid BP Systems Inc. received a $713,199 Project Grant award from the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute on April 15, 2021 to develop a blood pressure monitoring system using video recording on smart cameras. The goal of the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program, CFDA #93.837, is to support heart and vascular research. Under this award, Ovid BP will assess the feasibility of using video-based algorithms to accurately measure blood pressure through...
The University of California, Irvine was awarded a $392,500 Project Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (CFDA 93.837 - Cardiovascular Diseases Research) to develop the Maternal Obstetric Monitoring System (MOMS), a wearable device for early detection of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). The project aims to design and validate an alpha prototype sensor that integrates a MEMS-based blood pressure sensor and a continuous signal integration (CSI) sensor, as well as determine design...
This Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837), provides $295,895 to Ricovr Healthcare Inc. to develop a rapid, low-cost, point-of-care (POC) diagnostic platform for quantitative measurement of placental growth factor (PlGF) to predict and detect pre-eclampsia. The goal is to create an objective, affordable POC tool to improve the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of pre-eclampsia, which...
Dynocardia Inc. received a $256,000 National Science Foundation Project Grant to advance development of a novel continuous, cuffless blood pressure monitoring device. Funded through the NSF Engineering Directorate's SBIR program, the award will support Dynocardia's efforts to address motion artifacts and enable accurate, beat-to-beat blood pressure measurements in hospital intensive care and operating room settings. Accurate 24-hour blood pressure monitoring has potential to significantly...
This Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837), aims to develop and pilot an electronic health record-based physical activity intervention to prevent progression of postpartum hypertension in women with subclinical blood pressure elevations during pregnancy. The $192,199 grant awarded to Northwestern University will fund a 5-year project focused on (1) identifying factors that influence...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Cooperative Agreement award, under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (CFDA 47.084) program, provides $999,553 to Dynocardia, Inc. to develop advanced computer vision and artificial intelligence algorithms for motion artifact correction in their Vitrack wearable blood pressure monitoring device. The project aims to improve the accuracy and reliability of Vitrack's continuous, non-invasive blood pressure measurements in clinical settings, where...
This federal Project Grant award of $649,678, provided by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837), supports the development of a high-speed, wearable speckle contrast optical spectroscopy (SCOS) system for cuffless blood pressure monitoring. The project aims to convert the existing benchtop SCOS technology into a wearable device capable of multi-hour ambulatory monitoring, and to test the technique in a wider range of subjects,...
This Project Grant award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (CFDA 93.837 - Cardiovascular Diseases Research) provides $585,794 to Tele-Stethoscope Inc., a self-certified small disadvantaged business, to develop a novel mobile phone technology that can detect preeclampsia and hypertension. The key products to be delivered under this award include: Proof-of-concept demonstration that ordinary mobile phones can accurately reproduce a physician's diagnosis of preeclampsia....
VITRACK: WEARABLE, ACCURATE, CONTINUOUS BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES IN HYPERTENSIVE DISEASES OF PREGNANCY - ABSTRACT: WE HAVE DEVELOPED VITRACK, A CUFFLESS, WRIST-WEARABLE DEVICE THAT USES A FUNDAMENTALLY NEW METHOD TO ACCURATELY AND NON-INVASIVELY MEASURE BP CONTINUOUSLY. VITRACK'S BEAT-TO-BEAT ACCURATE MEASUREMENTS, IRRESPECTIVE OF PATIENT MOVEMENT OR WRIST LEVEL TO THE HEART, PROVIDE THE PATIENT'S CIRCADIAN BP PATTERN, INCLUDING 24-HR MEAN BP, NIGHTTIME BP, AND BP VARIABILITY (BPV). IN ADDITION, VITRACK ALSO MEASURES HEART RATE AND RESPIRATORY PARAMETERS AND ADVANCED HEMODYNAMICS. THE HYPERTENSIVE DISEASES OF PREGNANCY (HDP) ARE A SIGNIFICANT CAUSE OF MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY. THE CURRENT STANDARD FOR MEASURING BP IN PREGNANT WOMEN IS THE PERIODIC USE OF OSCILLOMETRIC ARM-CUFF DEVICES. THE OSCILLOMETRIC DEVICES INDIRECTLY ESTIMATE SYSTOLIC (SBP) AND DIASTOLIC BPS (DBP) BASED ON ARTERY WALL OSCILLATIONS DURING CUFF-DEFLATION. MEASUREMENT ERRORS INHERENT TO THIS INDIRECT METHOD, PATIENT POSTURE/MOVEMENT, AND WRONG CUFF SIZE LEAD TO UNRELIABLE BP MEASUREMENTS IN 50% OF ROUTINE OFFICE VISITS. OSCILLOMETRIC DEVICE ERRORS ARE COMPOUNDED IN PREGNANT WOMEN DUE TO HEMODYNAMIC AND VASCULAR CHANGES THAT REDUCE OSCILLATIONS OF THE ARTERIAL WALL, RESULTING IN BP UNDERESTIMATION. IN CONTRAST, THESE HEMODYNAMIC CHANGES WILL HAVE LESS IMPACT ON VITRACK MEASUREMENTS BECAUSE IT UTILIZES PRESSURE-DEPENDENT SPATIOTEMPORAL SKIN DISPLACEMENT TO MEASURE SBP AND DBP DIRECTLY. IN ADDITION, RANDOM CLINIC MEASUREMENTS DURING ANTENATAL VISITS LEAD TO A 30% WRONG DIAGNOSIS OF HDP DUE TO WHITE COAT OR MASKED HYPERTENSION. IN ADDITION, THERE IS A NEED FOR REMOTE AND CONTINUOUS ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF BP FOR PREDICTION AND EARLY DEDUCTION OF PREECLAMPSIA. THE 24-HOUR BP PARAMETERS, SUCH AS 24-HR MEAN SBP, NIGHTTIME BP, AND BPV, ARE BETTER PREDICTORS OF PREECLAMPSIA THAN CLINIC BP MEASUREMENTS. VITRACK, THE FIRST STANDALONE, WEARABLE, CONNECTED DEVICE, CAN PROVIDE REMOTE, ACCURATE CIRCADIAN BP DATA FOR CORRECT DIAGNOSIS AND ENABLE PREDICTIVE MONITORING FOR BETTER OUTCOMES. OUR OBJECTIVES IN THIS PHASE II STUDY ARE: (1) TO ASSESS THE ACCURACY OF VITRACK SBP AND DBP MEASUREMENTS IN PREGNANT WOMEN AND AS WELL AS IN WOMEN WITH SEVERE PREECLAMPSIA; (2) TO EVALUATE PATIENT TOLERANCE (I.E., COMFORT) AND RELIABILITY OF VITRACK'S BEAT-TO-BEAT 24-HR BP MEASUREMENTS, AND ASSESS USABILITY; (3) TO COMPARE THE 24-HR BP PROFILE IN PREGNANT WOMEN WITH AND WITHOUT HDP; AND (4) TO COMPARE THE NUMBER OF HYPOTENSIVE/HYPERTENSIVE EPISODES WITH VITRACK CONTINUOUS MEASUREMENTS VS. THE CURRENT STANDARD OF CARE OF INTERMITTENT CUFF MEASUREMENTS. THE DATA GENERATED WILL VALIDATE VITRACK AS THE FIRST STANDALONE WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY FOR ACCURATE AND CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF BP DURING PREGNANCY.