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Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

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Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#31

Post by Aerroon »

rsingla wrote: post #2

Can someone elaborate on value proposition for this sort of device? What problem(s) does it solve?

The main non-invasive way blood pressure is measured by a doctor is by putting a cuff around your upper arm. The cuff has a pump attached to it. The doctor inflates the cuff until the pressure cuts off the blood flow in the main artery of your arm. Then the doctor slowly deflates the cuff and listens for when the blood starts flowing again. The pressure that this happens at is your systolic blood pressure (the larger number). Then they keep deflating and listening until the sound stops. That's your diastolic blood pressure (the smaller number).

A digital blood pressure monitor effectively does the same thing, but without the need for a trained professional. It still has the cuff and the pump. To measure the blood pressure it has to pump and cut off the blood flow to some extent. This obviously makes it inconvenient - it's uncomfortable, it's fairly large, you have to put it around your arm (or wrist or finger), and the pump is usually noisy. The new device seems to be an improvement in these categories.

The main improvement here is size though. Blood pressure monitors usually go around your upper arm and the machine that houses the pump and the electronics is even larger than the cuff. This makes taking frequent measurements difficult. There are smaller devices that go on your wrist, but their accuracy tends to not be great. Even the standard digital blood pressure monitors suffer from inaccuracy.

If the device in the article does what it says and is actually close to as accurate as a regular digital blood pressure monitor, then hopefully we will get more blood pressure data on more people. This should hopefully allow doctors to figure out better treatment plans. However, I find it unlikely that it will match the accuracy of the commonly used digital blood pressure monitors.

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#32

Post by wikibob »

blhack wrote: post #27
sm4rk0 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In real time and willing and able to sell it to whomever bids more?

Well yes in some cases it is in "real time", but do you know of doctors offices caught selling health data? That seems wildly unethical, and also very illegal. I'd imagine anybody caught doing that would be in jail.

Not only do they sell it, your Insurance company aggregates and sells it, as does your pharmacy, and anybody else that can get their grubby little hands on it.

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#33

Post by wikibob »

irjustin wrote: post #29

I have High Blood Pressure. 140/100 when non-medicated during the office day. 110/85-90, medicated and relaxed. Having this since 25 (37 now), my genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy (all other vitals normal, HBP runs in family). All this to say, I hate measuring my BP and follow this space closely. It's a chore that takes minimum 10 minutes twice a day and I have to largely stop what I'm doing. I would gi…

Just curious, no offense intended: what is your level of fitness and BMI?

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#34

Post by blhack »

sm4rk0 wrote: post #30
blhack wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes in some cases it is in "real time", but do you know of doctors offices caught selling health data? That seems wildly unethical, and also very illegal. I'd imagine anybody caught doing that would be in jail.

My point was that your data is safer with a doctor's office then with a "platform": > And while you might assume that this information is legally protected the same way your hospital and medical records are, that’s not necessarily the case. https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/are-health-ap...

Can you be specific about what you're trying to get at here?

I don't understand why you think there is a difference between taking a health reading at your doctors office and having it included in your patient chart, or taking a reading at your house and having that included in your patient chart. I'm wondering if I'm missing something that is just being unsaid.

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#35

Post by irjustin »

wikibob wrote: post #33
irjustin wrote: post #29

I have High Blood Pressure. 140/100 when non-medicated during the office day. 110/85-90, medicated and relaxed. Having this since 25 (37 now), my genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy (all other vitals normal, HBP runs in family). All this to say, I hate measuring my BP and follow this space closely. It's a chore that takes minimum 10 minutes twice a day and I have to largely stop what I'm doing. I would gi…

Just curious, no offense intended: what is your level of fitness and BMI?

None at all. Being ~5'9" & 135 lbs, my back-of-the-napkin BMI is ~20.

Fitness is pretty low these days given COVID, but I used to be quite fit (former Fitness company). That didn't really move my BP much.

My biggest levers for BP are salt intake and work stress. Currently a co-founder so work stress is rather high handled with a bit of mitigation practices like meditation, but definitely not enough.

Overall I'm on borrowed time of sorts and do my best to be thankful for each day... doesn't always come through.

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#36

Post by Buttons840 »

irjustin wrote: post #29

I have High Blood Pressure. 140/100 when non-medicated during the office day. 110/85-90, medicated and relaxed. Having this since 25 (37 now), my genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy (all other vitals normal, HBP runs in family). All this to say, I hate measuring my BP and follow this space closely. It's a chore that takes minimum 10 minutes twice a day and I have to largely stop what I'm doing. I would gi…

> genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy

As it does all of us.

My BP monitor takes 3 reading and reports the average and takes about 2 minutes to do this. What are you doing that takes so long?

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#37

Post by everly »

blhack wrote: post #34
sm4rk0 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was that your data is safer with a doctor's office then with a "platform": > And while you might assume that this information is legally protected the same way your hospital and medical records are, that’s not necessarily the case. https://www.consumerreports.org/health-privacy/are-health-ap...

Can you be specific about what you're trying to get at here? I don't understand why you think there is a difference between taking a health reading at your doctors office and having it included in your patient chart, or taking a reading at your house and having that included in your patient chart. I'm wondering if I'm missing something that is just being unsaid.

I think they are just saying the data is more likely to be secure if it is recorded at your doctor's office, which seems reasonable to me.

Let's say it is a blood pressure reading taken by your Fitbit and uploaded to Google's servers. That data is not subject to HIPAA regulations. When your doctor takes your blood pressure and records it in your chart, it is subject to those regulations (as you say, it would be wildly unethical for them to sell it).

Separately, even if the two scenarios were subject to the same regulations, I would still expect the doctor's office scenario to be more secure. I think that any given patient's home network/device/security practices are more lax than those of most healthcare organizations.

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#39

Post by swirepe »

everly wrote: post #37
blhack wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you be specific about what you're trying to get at here? I don't understand why you think there is a difference between taking a health reading at your doctors office and having it included in your patient chart, or taking a reading at your house and having that included in your patient chart. I'm wondering if I'm missing something that is just being unsaid.

I think they are just saying the data is more likely to be secure if it is recorded at your doctor's office, which seems reasonable to me. Let's say it is a blood pressure reading taken by your Fitbit and uploaded to Google's servers. That data is not subject to HIPAA regulations. When your doctor takes your blood pressure and records it in your chart, it is subject to those regulations (as you say, it would be wildl…

>That data is not subject to HIPAA regulations.

You can be HIPAA compliant and on Google servers.

https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance/hipaa/

Re: Cuffless device delivers clinically accurate blood pressure measurements

#40

Post by irjustin »

Buttons840 wrote: post #36
irjustin wrote: post #29

I have High Blood Pressure. 140/100 when non-medicated during the office day. 110/85-90, medicated and relaxed. Having this since 25 (37 now), my genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy (all other vitals normal, HBP runs in family). All this to say, I hate measuring my BP and follow this space closely. It's a chore that takes minimum 10 minutes twice a day and I have to largely stop what I'm doing. I would gi…

> genetics sadly puts a cap on my life expectancy As it does all of us. My BP monitor takes 3 reading and reports the average and takes about 2 minutes to do this. What are you doing that takes so long?

I do my best to wait 5 minutes before taking the first reading and 2-3 minutes in-between readings
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