A new smartphone clip could literally give users access to blood pressure monitoring at their fingertips.
The device — called a BPclip – fits over a phone’s camera, and costs ten cents to produce at scale, making blood pressure monitoring more accessible, and helping older adults manage hypertension, the researchers say.
The research was conducted at the University of California San Diego, and findings were published recently in the journal Scientific Reports.
“The clip could be given to you at your checkup, much like how you get a pack of floss and toothbrush at your dental visit,” said Edward Wang, senior study author and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSD. Wang is also the director of the school’s Digital Health Lab.
Hypertension is an extremely common condition in older adults, affecting a majority of the population over 60.
The BPclip is being designed to be user-friendly for older adults, said Colin Barry, a graduate research fellow at UCSD and a study author.
Already, the clip’s technology is cuffless and records the data simply by pressing the clip; further design adjustments will make it as easy as possible for users with poor dexterity to perform the measurements, and the smartphone interface is being designed to be as user-friendly as possible, Barry told McKnight’s.
While a cuffless blood pressure monitoring is new tech, wrist worn monitors have been available for a while and companies have been improving remote monitoring capabilities since the pandemic.
The creators of the BPclip have created a company, Billion Labs, to begin working through the US Food and Drug Administration process. It will probably be a few years before the device could become commercially ready, Barry told Mcknight’s.
In the meantime, the researchers have applied for funding for further studies, he said.
