Wearable devices have been trending in the tech market, boasting hi-tech features that allow real-time fitness and body response tracking and syncing with one’s smartphone. Biomedical companies, such as Aseptika Limited, specialize in developing and marketing an integrated suite of self-monitoring devices and services under their Activ8rlives brand, with a focus on respiratory conditions. The company recently announced it is boosting development of a medical Smartwatch called BuddyWOTCH™ (Walking, Oxygenation, Temperature, Chronicle or image capture, and Heartrate), designed to constantly monitor patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) for their blood oxygen saturation and other key vital signs. The wearable device is also designed to automatically transmit recorded measurements to Aseptika’s cloud-based data bank through cellular and wireless connectivity. The BuddyWOTCH will soon be CE-marked as a Class II medical device, designed for Home Use.
Aside from providing a means for remote, continuous self-monitoring, the company designed the BuddyWOTCH to encourage physical activity, and adherence to treatment and nutrition. Oxygen saturation levels and vital signs measured by the device will also be integrated with Aseptika’s proprietary sputum test, used as a diagnostic tool in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, compounded with chronic infections of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
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“Our BuddyWOTCH will become an integrated monitoring and alerting system, wearable for the “rest-of-life” by the most vulnerable patients with respiratory disease. Combining sensors to monitor fundamental vital signs of COPD patients, will enable patients and their carers to learn from their data and to better self-manage this long-term condition,” said Kevin A. Auton Ph.D., Co-Founder and Managing Director of Aseptika Limited. “Younger family members are often unpaid carers and this innovation will provide them with confidence 24/7 that their older family members are safe or give the evidence that they require support. Equally important as we age, we all want to remain independent and in our own homes for as long as we are able. We need a new generation of simple tools to help us, our families and the network of our clinical supporters, achieve these goals and reduce the growing pressure on our NHS.”
The project acceleration is funded by a £1 million Phase 2 pre-procurement contract from the NHS England’s Small Business Research Initiative Healthcare (SBRI Healthcare), managed by Health Enterprise East (HEE) on behalf of the Eastern Academic Health and Sciences Network (EAHSN). Aseptika plans to complete and deliver the first batch of BuddyWOTCHes to NHS partners, and conduct beta testing on volunteers by the end of 2015.