INDIA – MFine, India’s leading Digital Health startup, has launched a Heart Rate Monitoring (HR) Tool on its app, allowing users to track their heart rate without the use of an additional device or another app.

Beyond telemedicine consultations and healthcare services, the company is developing a number of next-generation AI technologies that will transform the mobile phone into rich diagnostics and vitals monitoring tool.

MFine explained that the photoplethysmogram signal from a user’s fingertips detects blood volume changes beneath the skin’s surface and thus measures their heart rate.

Because blood absorbs light, the MFine app can measure the amount of blood that reaches the capillaries with each heartbeat by using the phone’s camera’s flash.

The LED illuminates the skin, and the smartphone camera detects changes in light absorption, dividing the signal into red, blue, and green components.

A machine learning algorithm calculates heart rate based on the difference in light absorbed levels across these different wavelengths.

According to MFine, the tool has “90 percent medical-grade accuracy,” and “thousands of users” have already used it, with over 700 people using it on a daily basis to monitor their heart rate.

The app is currently in public beta for Android users and will be available soon for iOS users.

In collaboration with its trusted partners, MFine is focused on delivering an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare service across India, and aims to be one of the world’s largest virtual hospitals with services spanning primary care, secondary care, and chronic care management.

Heart rate, a vital sign

Heart rate is one of four ‘vital signs’ that physicians routinely monitor to diagnose heart-related diseases such as arrhythmias and rhythm disorders such as Atrial Fibrillation (AF).

The irregular heartbeat caused by Atrial Fibrillation can lead to blood clots, which can break off and travel to the brain, resulting in a stroke.

Patients with atrial fibrillation are five times more likely to have a stroke, and it is possible to have atrial fibrillation and be unaware of it.

Because of its erratic nature, AF is usually difficult to detect and necessitates a physical ECG/EKG at a hospital.

Mobile-based HR monitoring, on the other hand, can provide at-home screening and alert users when they are at risk, allowing them to seek timely medical intervention.

MFine’s SPO2 monitoring tool

MFine launched a SPO2 (oxygen saturation) monitoring tool on its app in 2021, which has been used by over 600,000 users.

The tool allows users to monitor their oxygen saturation levels without the use of an additional device.

SPO2 levels are tracked by users who have conditions that affect oxygen saturation, such as people with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions, sleep apnea, heavy snoring, and very young infants, in addition to being used while recovering from Covid-19.

India currently has 600 million smartphone users, and thanks to falling mobile device prices and the growing adoption of 4G services, smartphones have a high penetration rate even in rural areas with limited access to sophisticated infrastructure.

Using smartphones to monitor health vitals, supplemented by telemedicine consultations, has the potential to change the game in India.

Smartphones and wearable technologies are increasingly being used as affordable, user-friendly, and pervasive healthcare solutions, allowing users to manage their health conditions proactively and avoid unnecessary hospitalization.

While wearables cater to a specific segment of the population, smartphones are more widely available in India.

Smartphones will play a significant role in how users track vital parameters and healthcare providers handle diagnostics as a health monitoring device.

Leveraging AI technologies

Meanwhile, MFine stated that it is working on a variety of next-generation AI technologies in order to “convert the mobile phone into rich diagnostics and vitals monitoring tool.”

By the end of 2022, the company intends to add glucose monitoring and blood pressure monitoring to its app.

MFine released an app-based blood oxygen saturation monitoring tool last year, which it claims has been used by over 600,000 people.

MFine services have been used by over 3 million users, with the platform processing over 300,000 monthly transactions that include doctor consultations, diagnostic tests, e-pharmacy, and in-patient procedures.

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