Sense A/S out of Taastrup, Denmark is developing a continuous blood pressure monitor that doesn’t rely on a typical pressure cuff, but rather on a patch that has electrodes that sense the changing impedance of tissue around a vessel and convert it into a BP reading. Measuring other characteristics in electrical signal can also identify vascular stiffness and pulse velocity.
The company just raised € 4.5 million in a third investment round and believes that a 510(k) approval from the FDA is likely sufficient to get the device to market.
The Danish company Sense A/S develops ContiPress™, which continuously measures the patient’s blood pressure 24 hours a day, down to every 10 second day and night, without the user noticing. ContiPress™ consists of an intelligent patch, which the doctor or nurse places on the patient’s upper arm. From there, the unit monitors the patient’s blood pressure over 24 hours and stores the data for subsequent analysis via an enclosed piece of software. The result is comprehensive data about the patient’s blood pressure over 24 hours and thus an optimal basis for making the correct diagnosis.
Sense has raised € 4.5 million in an investment round with venture fund SEED Capital and Vækstfonden. It is the company third round, since it was founded in 2006 in connection with an investment from SEED Capital. Second round of investment came from SEED Capital and Vækstfonden in 2010. ContiPress™ is currently a prototype that has been clinically tested on people with very large differences in both blood pressure, BMI (body mass index) and age with promising results that verify the measurement principle. The investment round will be used to refine the device and try ContiPress™ in a more extensive clinical testing within the expected commercial launch.
Press release: Sense raises € 4.5 million to improve measurement of blood pressure
