PhysioWave, a spinoff from Stanford University, successfully completed a 200-subject clinical study with OMRON Healthcare Co., Ltd., a global leader in medical devices for health monitoring and treatment. PhysioWave has been developing rapid, non-invasive technology to measure a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease, using a weight scale, when they arrive for a clinic visit. PhysioWave’s technology is mature and FDA-cleared, and PhysioWave is seeking opportunities to bring this important new technology to the consumer space through partnerships.
The PhysioWave Pro™ scale measures the stiffness of the major blood vessel into which the heart pumps, the aorta. Stiffness increases with age, but excess stiffness among people of similar ages can be a warning sign of risk. It is established that increased vascular stiffness can predict the later development of high blood pressure, or hypertension, and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
“The chance to work with OMRON Healthcare is a true honor. We have used their blood pressure instruments as reference standards on many clinical studies and greatly value their brand power,” said PhysioWave founder, Greg Kovacs, MD, PhD.
The study was carried out in Kyoto, Japan, and was intended to explore the use of PhysioWave’s technology to assess cardiovascular disease risk at home. This new technology could be used to monitor the beneficial effects of lifestyle changes or prescription medicines for preventing and managing cardiovascular disease. It is widely recognized that cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, and the PhysioWave vascular stiffness technology is low-cost and requires no disposables to deliver meaningful information in under one minute. The study validated the accuracy and reproducibility of PhysioWave’s vascular stiffness technology in a wide distribution of subject attributes such as age and BMI. “As we move more aggressively into disease prevention, rather than treating cardiovascular disease after it has manifested, the ability to carry out personalized cardiovascular risk assessment assumes even greater importance to our healthcare systems” said Judith Swain, MD, PhysioWave CMO, and previous Chair of Medicine at Stanford and previous Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
“OMRON Healthcare is exploring innovative technologies to help prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases for its “Going for ZERO” vision, including collaboration with partners. The accuracy of PhysioWave’s vascular stiffness technology was excellent. We look forward to further exploration of cardiovascular measurement technology at home with this collaboration,” said Minoru Yoshimura, Executive Officer, OMRON Healthcare Co., Ltd.
PhysioWave and OMRON intend to continue to explore opportunities for vascular stiffness in consumer settings, including its use to help identify persons with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and to provide feedback as they manage their conditions.