Sathya Elumalai found it difficult to manage his mother’s health after she was diagnosed with four chronic diseases. Instead of guessing her health status for the day, Idar decided to get Health Together to get that information directly and reliably.
When he founded Aidar, he created and launched MouthLab, a device that he claims monitors 10 key health parameters in less than a minute. The company was part of the Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2022.
“You have this check engine light to tell a car, it’s time to pick up your car. [to a] Dealer or mechanic to have it fixed. In the same way, our device acts as a way to track your health on a daily basis and provide a more holistic view of individual health,” said Elumalai. “So if there is [are] If any abnormalities, or any changes in that health are detected, the device will inform the user about those changes and what they can do to manage their health. or using the same information to communicate with their physicians or caregivers to better assess their health status or changes or health changes at an early stage.
Image Credits: Aidar Health
A user holds an iPhone-sized device and places their mouth over the mouthpiece and breathes normally as instructed and places their hands on the device. The company says the MouthLab records temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, heart rate variability, ECG, spirometry (i.e., lung function) and oxygen saturation. Data is collected from sensors on the device from saliva, breath, hand pulse and lips to read body measurements.
In a world where, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, digital and remote care are the new normal, doctors have often had to give up what their patients say is a good starting point, but not enough for long-term care. Although tests and labs were eventually done, there was no efficient way to monitor a patient’s vitals at home.
Aidar Health received Class II FDA 510(k) approval earlier this month. The clearance states that the device may pose a moderate risk to consumers, but allows the company to promote and market the product for commercial distribution. It’s not clear what risks the clearance implies. According to the company, the device has undergone three clinical trials and has begun research in collaboration with the VA Health System.
Today, there are more than 800 active users of MouthLab and Aidar Health, for remote vitals monitoring, chronic care management and other home health services — as well as “real-world evidence-generating efforts with life science companies,” Elumalai said (the latter likely participating in research). that is).
“The device will be used for remote physiological monitoring (RPM), chronic care management (CCM), home hospital (H@H) services with health systems and digital biomarker development, digital collateral and real-world evidence generation efforts with life science companies.” Elumalai told TechCrunch.
The Maryland-based company says they are HIPAA compliant, using their own LTE/cellular network cloud. After the data is collected, it is sent to users via a mobile app and then to physicians via Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, an API for electronic health records.
The company decided to operate on a subscription-based model that costs $50 to $80 per patient per month. Users are given access to MouthLab, as well as web and mobile apps, and physicians can collect baseline data and analytics. Pricing may vary based on service usage.
“It’s very difficult for patients to really understand what’s going on,” says Elumalai. But with a device like this, we can get the information in real time before the telemedicine doctor gets it. So you get a complete snapshot of the patient’s medical history, a longitudinal analysis of data for the past few days.
