#21 - Transforming hypertension care with a bracelet - Jay Shah - Aktiia

Impulse - Meeting Healthcare Pioneers

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Few companies can claim to be a step ahead of tech giants in the wearable race.

The Swiss company Aktiia can.

They were the first to successfully bring to market a device capable of continuously and accurately measuring blood pressure, officially approved in Europe and soon to be in the US. All in a discreet bracelet that resembles a traditional jewel.

It changes the game for how we approach hypertension, the first chronic condition worldwide affecting a staggering 1.4 billion people, and which comes with dire long-term consequences like strokes and heart attacks.

The impact such groundbreaking technology can have on the daily lives of those affected is immense, not to mention its benefits for those in charge of their medical care.

Say goodbye to the uncomfortable and cumbersome inflatable cuff (the actual “gold standard” to measure blood pressure), not to mention the major step forward in terms of design!

Aktiia has defied expectations by merging optical and machine learning expertise over nearly two decades of cutting-edge research, resulting in a significant breakthrough in the world of wearables.

In this new episode of the series, we sit with Jay Shah - the leading cardiologist and current Chief Medical Officer at Aktiia - who shares with us the story and functioning behind this stunning piece of technology.

You will learn about:

• Hypertension and the public health crisis it represents
• The benefits of continuous blood pressure measurement
• How the Aktiia bracelet works
• How a small company like Aktiia was able to stand up to the biggest tech companies
• Preventive medicine and why empowering patients in their self-care matters

A fascinating episode exploring the medical potential of wearables in our lives!

Timeline:

• 02:30 - Jay’s background as a cardiologist and what led him to Aktiia
• 05:30 - The most common cause of cardiovascular diseases: hypertension
• 10:15 - What Aktiia is about and what it changes for blood pressure monitoring
• 15:50 - How Aktiia’s technology work
• 20:12 - The limits of the pattern-matching approach with wearable data
• 24:00 - Why Aktiia succeeded where big tech companies failed
• 27:45 - Who can get access to Aktiia’s bracelet
• 30:35 - How Aktiia empowers patients to take better control of their condition

What we also talked about with Jay:

• Mattia Bertschi
• Josep Sola
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Mayo Clinic
• Blood pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer)
• Photoplethysmography
• NextMed Health

We cited with Jay some of the past episodes from the series:

• #1 - Measuring your arterial age to prevent heart diseases - Ted Baldwin - Imageens
• #12 - Unleashing the power of digital health - Daniel Kraft - Digital.Health

You can learn more about Aktiia through their website.

Feel free to follow their activities on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram!

As mentioned by Jay during the episode, you can find out more about the clinical research in hypertension and all the evidence developed around the bracelet in that regard here. For a very technical deep dive into cuffless blood pressure monitoring, we invite you to consult “The Handbook of Cuffless Blood Pressure Monitoring: A Practical Guide for Clinicians, Researchers, and Engineers” by Josep Sola himself, one of the founders from Aktiia.

If you want to get in touch with Jay, feel free to contact him over LinkedIn.

If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, you can contact me over LinkedIn or via email at [e-mail]!

If you liked the episode, please share it, subscribe to the podcast, and leave a 5-star review on streaming platforms! 🙏

And don’t forget to follow our activities on LinkedIn and through our website!