Prototype of the blood pressure monitoring clip. The user presses on the clip and a custom-made smartphone app guides the user on how hard and long to press during the measurement. Credit: Digital Health Lab/ UC San Diego
Engineers have established a low-cost, user-friendly clip and mobile phone app for blood pressure tracking. The clip, which costs less than a dollar to produce, works without needing calibration and uses an inexpensive option to traditional blood pressure monitoring methods. Engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have actually established an easy, affordable clip that uses a mobile phones cam and flash to monitor blood pressure at the users fingertip.
The innovation was released today (May 29) in the journal Scientific Reports.
Model of the blood pressure tracking clip. Engineers have actually developed a low-cost, easy to use clip and smartphone app for blood pressure tracking. The clip, which costs less than a dollar to produce, works without needing calibration and uses an economical alternative to standard blood pressure monitoring approaches. Engineers at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) have actually established an easy, low-priced clip that uses a mobile phones electronic camera and flash to keep track of blood pressure at the users fingertip. Model of the blood pressure tracking clip.
Scientists state it might help make regular blood pressure monitoring simple, accessible and budget friendly to individuals in resource-poor communities. It could benefit older grownups and pregnant ladies, for instance, in handling conditions such as high blood pressure.
” Weve produced an inexpensive option to decrease the barrier to high blood pressure tracking,” said study first author Yinan (Tom) Xuan, an electrical and computer system engineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego
Prototype of the blood pressure tracking clip. The user presses on a custom-made and the clip smart device app guides the user on how difficult and long to press during the measurement. Credit: Digital Health Lab/ UC San Diego.
” Because of their low cost, these clips might be distributed to anyone who requires them but can not go to a center frequently,” stated study senior author Edward Wang, a teacher of electrical and computer engineering at UC San Diego and director of the Digital Health Lab. “A blood pressure tracking clip might be offered to you at your examination, much like how you get a pack of floss and tooth brush at your oral check out.”
Another key benefit of the clip is that it does not require to be calibrated to a cuff.
” This is what differentiates our gadget from other blood pressure monitors,” stated Wang. Other cuffless systems being developed for smartwatches and smartphones, he described, require acquiring a separate set of measurements with a cuff so that their designs can be tuned to fit these measurements.
” Our is a calibration-free system, implying you can simply utilize our device without touching another high blood pressure monitor to get a reliable high blood pressure reading.”
Model of the high blood pressure monitoring clip. The user presses on a custom-made and the clip smartphone app guides the user on how tough and long to press throughout the measurement. Credit: Digital Health Lab/ UC San Diego
To determine high blood pressure, the user merely presses on the clip with a fingertip. A custom smart device app guides the user on how tough and long to press during the measurement.
The clip is a 3D-printed plastic attachment that fits over a mobile phones electronic camera and flash. It features an optical style comparable to that of a pinhole camera. When the user presses on the clip, the mobile phones flash lights up the fingertip. That light is then projected through a pinhole-sized channel to the camera as a picture of a red circle. A spring inside the clip allows the user to push with various levels of force. The harder the user presses, the bigger the red circle appears on the electronic camera.
By looking at the size of the circle, the app can determine the amount of pressure that the users fingertip applies. An algorithm converts this info into diastolic and systolic blood pressure readings.
The researchers checked the clip on 24 volunteers from the UC San Diego Medical. Results were equivalent to those taken by a high blood pressure cuff.
” Using a standard high blood pressure cuff can be awkward to put on properly, and this service has the prospective to make it simpler for older adults to self-monitor high blood pressure,” stated research study co-author and medical collaborator Alison Moore, chief of the Division of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
While the team has actually just proven the option on a single mobile phone design, the clips present design in theory ought to deal with other phone models, said Xuan.
Wang and among his lab members, Colin Barry, a co-author on the paper who is an electrical and computer system engineering trainee at UC San Diego, co-founded a business, Billion Labs Inc., to refine and advertise the technology.
Next actions include making the technology more easy to use, especially for older grownups; checking its accuracy across various skin tones; and producing a more universal style.
Referral: “Ultra-low-cost Mechanical Smartphone Attachment for No-Calibration Blood Pressure Measurement” by Yinan Xuan, Colin Barry, Jessica De Souza, Jessica H. Wen, Nick Antipa, Alison A. Moore and Edward J. Wang, 29 May 2023, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/ s41598-023-34431-1.
Co-authors consist of Jessica De Souza, Jessica Wen and Nick Antipa, all at UC San Diego.
This work is supported by the National Institute of Aging Massachusetts AI and Technology Center for Connected Care in Aging and Alzheimers Disease (MassAITC P30AG073107 Subaward 23-016677 N 00), the Altman Translational and scientific Research Institute Galvanizing Engineering in Medicine (GEM) Awards, and a Google Research Scholar Award.
Disclosures: Edward Wang and Colin Barry are co-founders of and have a financial interest in Billion Labs Inc. The terms of this plan have been reviewed and authorized by the University of California San Diego in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.