Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BP24 (A unique life-saving smart-watch for high quality, not-invasive, continuous blood pressure monitoring.)
Reporting period: 2017-08-01 to 2017-12-31
Despite 10% of all global healthcare spending invested in hypertension, it is still responsible for 9M deaths every year, and remains uncontrolled in 47% of the patients’ population. This is caused by the lack of awareness and hospital-only equipment that is unsuitable for self-monitoring BP devices. Even still, existing BP self-monitoring is a time-consuming, energy-demanding activity that requires the patient to interrupt daily activities, a few times a day, to measure BP and send data manually to their physicians. Our blood pressure (BP) monitoring device, BP24, is a smart wearable that can continuously track the patients’ BP levels. We do so through measuring the force exerted by the circulating blood on the inner walls of blood vessels, and the physical resistance offered to it by blood vessels, which allows us to accurately calculate BP.
The BP24 device perfectly addresses the need expressed in the Health 2020 Policy priority about the reduction of high blood pressure (BP) prevalence. Hypertension prevalence for Europe is 60% higher than in the US or Canada and, being a major risk factor for serious cardiovascular events. It causes 25% of heart attacks and 42% of all deaths across Europe annually. There is great need for self BP monitoring practice as espoused by the ESH guidelines. The call for increasing public awareness in hypertension2 and issues related to uncontrolled high blood pressure, is global: low patient compliance to hypertension treatments leads to >50,000 deaths/year in US alone. The majority of hypertension patients are middle-aged: 90% risk for normotensive people aged >55 to develop hypertension. Offering the historical record of BP across days and weeks with no effort or discomfort at all, patients can receive constant feedback and evidence of the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle and drug treatment on their BP; this, in turn, will help them feel more involved in the management of their own illness, fostering active-ageing.
The BP24 device perfectly addresses the need expressed in the Health 2020 Policy priority about the reduction of high blood pressure (BP) prevalence. Hypertension prevalence for Europe is 60% higher than in the US or Canada and, being a major risk factor for serious cardiovascular events. It causes 25% of heart attacks and 42% of all deaths across Europe annually. There is great need for self BP monitoring practice as espoused by the ESH guidelines. The call for increasing public awareness in hypertension2 and issues related to uncontrolled high blood pressure, is global: low patient compliance to hypertension treatments leads to >50,000 deaths/year in US alone. The majority of hypertension patients are middle-aged: 90% risk for normotensive people aged >55 to develop hypertension. Offering the historical record of BP across days and weeks with no effort or discomfort at all, patients can receive constant feedback and evidence of the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle and drug treatment on their BP; this, in turn, will help them feel more involved in the management of their own illness, fostering active-ageing.
This study proved instrumental to investigating the market landscape, strengths, as well as meeting requirements, to ensure successful first revenues from the proprietary technology. The Feasibility Study showed that a new business model and commercialisation plan was needed to approach the market, and achieve higher rates of market penetration and sales. As such, first commercial entry has been identified through the interest of e-health retailers. The main achievements reported in the study were:
• Upon further in-depth market analysis through investigations and meetings with key market players, we found that the problems and needs in this market aren’t being adequately met by the current personal self-BP monitoring devices. These current BP devices are difficult to use, cumbersome, can’t measure accurate BP data, are only used every few hours, and have made it hard for all to be able to afford it with their high margins of profit from each device.
• The market demand was validated through discussions with potential customers, GPs and doctors in hospitals and clinics, and hypertension societies and their members. This showed that the all stakeholders desired more cost-effective, more accurate, easier to use, and non-invasive or cumbersome methods of monitoring BP continuously by themselves.
• As a result of the above, we found that the most beneficial business model to approach the market would not be to sell the solution through GPs and physicians by offering the solution to their patients but instead to the consumers through e-health retailers. The reasons behind this included:
o Selling through retailers means a much wider market can be reached due to the presence of retailers in many different countries and even continents. This will create a more viable method of scaling-up our solution and selling it to our future markets. This is in comparison to GPs and physicians who affect a smaller segment of the market only from patients seeking direct consultation help for hypertension. Instead of just accommodating these patients who need to visit their GP or physician due to BP related health issues or concerns, we also target any other consumer by selling through retailers. If a person is concerned of their BP or are experiencing high BP or hypertension symptoms, they can purchase the BP24 solution and assess their BP before consulting a doctor;
o GPs and physicians have been found to recommend the solution to their patients, even if we don’t approach them as a distributor of our solution, as it is a highly effective solution that will help to save their patients’ lives and keep them healthier.
• The self-monitoring e-health market is showing in continued growth recent trends due to the continued exposure and reduction in prices of other health monitoring solutions. This technology has also been introduced into some higher models of mobile phones meaning a larger market is becoming aware of the technology advancements. The desire from medical professionals and health conscious citizens for personalised and preventative healthcare will help this market to grow even further.
• The MVP of the BP24 solution was finalised through stakeholder feedback, the majority of which came from the potential customers. Our solution is designed to accommodate and solve all of their problems witgh current devices, while also accounting for any needs they have as users of the solution. This resulted in the use of easily accessible components as part of the MVP, and a definite list of features to be present in the MVP.
• Due to the use of easily accessible components combined with our world-renowned subcontracting manufacturer, who has plenty of experience in e-health devices, smartwatches, and wearables, the industrialisation plan allows for a high level of quality when scaling-up to an international level. Our value chain was defined in this Feasibility Study, as we scouted all possible stakeholders and decided with the ones that suited our predetermined requisites.
• Upon further in-depth market analysis through investigations and meetings with key market players, we found that the problems and needs in this market aren’t being adequately met by the current personal self-BP monitoring devices. These current BP devices are difficult to use, cumbersome, can’t measure accurate BP data, are only used every few hours, and have made it hard for all to be able to afford it with their high margins of profit from each device.
• The market demand was validated through discussions with potential customers, GPs and doctors in hospitals and clinics, and hypertension societies and their members. This showed that the all stakeholders desired more cost-effective, more accurate, easier to use, and non-invasive or cumbersome methods of monitoring BP continuously by themselves.
• As a result of the above, we found that the most beneficial business model to approach the market would not be to sell the solution through GPs and physicians by offering the solution to their patients but instead to the consumers through e-health retailers. The reasons behind this included:
o Selling through retailers means a much wider market can be reached due to the presence of retailers in many different countries and even continents. This will create a more viable method of scaling-up our solution and selling it to our future markets. This is in comparison to GPs and physicians who affect a smaller segment of the market only from patients seeking direct consultation help for hypertension. Instead of just accommodating these patients who need to visit their GP or physician due to BP related health issues or concerns, we also target any other consumer by selling through retailers. If a person is concerned of their BP or are experiencing high BP or hypertension symptoms, they can purchase the BP24 solution and assess their BP before consulting a doctor;
o GPs and physicians have been found to recommend the solution to their patients, even if we don’t approach them as a distributor of our solution, as it is a highly effective solution that will help to save their patients’ lives and keep them healthier.
• The self-monitoring e-health market is showing in continued growth recent trends due to the continued exposure and reduction in prices of other health monitoring solutions. This technology has also been introduced into some higher models of mobile phones meaning a larger market is becoming aware of the technology advancements. The desire from medical professionals and health conscious citizens for personalised and preventative healthcare will help this market to grow even further.
• The MVP of the BP24 solution was finalised through stakeholder feedback, the majority of which came from the potential customers. Our solution is designed to accommodate and solve all of their problems witgh current devices, while also accounting for any needs they have as users of the solution. This resulted in the use of easily accessible components as part of the MVP, and a definite list of features to be present in the MVP.
• Due to the use of easily accessible components combined with our world-renowned subcontracting manufacturer, who has plenty of experience in e-health devices, smartwatches, and wearables, the industrialisation plan allows for a high level of quality when scaling-up to an international level. Our value chain was defined in this Feasibility Study, as we scouted all possible stakeholders and decided with the ones that suited our predetermined requisites.
The BP24 solution is well positioned in the market in recent years due to a number of different reasons. The first being that the recent uptake of personal, e-health devices (eg. Fitbit, Polar & Garmin wearables – measure heart rate among other indicators of health) continues to grow . The capabilities of wearable technology looks to continue to expand and generate other potential life-saving technology and measurements. This has resulted in doctors recommending certain wearables and smart wearables to better track the user’s health . Despite the increase in usage of these e-health devices, no BP device has successfully reached commercialisation and made accurate BP measurements widely available leaving a great opportunity for us to take advantage of.
The use of notifications to alert the user and physician to when BP levels are exceeded will help to improve that specific patient’s care. This type of personalised care is also becoming more and more advised by leading professionals and desired by the public that are becoming more health-aware . This has led to a push for the use of e-health devices to establish a more personalized care system, which will prevent illness instead of cure it . As such, the BP24 solution fits very well into these future projections, making it a prime time for market introduction of our solution.
BP monitors are a very large global market ($2 Billion in 2014). The largest segment of this market is the self-monitoring BP devices, at over 45% market share in 2014, and a CAGR of 10.3% from 2015 to 2023. The global market of smart e-health devices for hypertension amounts to $154 Million, with 45% of the market share in the US followed closely by 36% in Europe. This proves that this market is constantly growing and becoming more and more lucrative in recent years.
The use of notifications to alert the user and physician to when BP levels are exceeded will help to improve that specific patient’s care. This type of personalised care is also becoming more and more advised by leading professionals and desired by the public that are becoming more health-aware . This has led to a push for the use of e-health devices to establish a more personalized care system, which will prevent illness instead of cure it . As such, the BP24 solution fits very well into these future projections, making it a prime time for market introduction of our solution.
BP monitors are a very large global market ($2 Billion in 2014). The largest segment of this market is the self-monitoring BP devices, at over 45% market share in 2014, and a CAGR of 10.3% from 2015 to 2023. The global market of smart e-health devices for hypertension amounts to $154 Million, with 45% of the market share in the US followed closely by 36% in Europe. This proves that this market is constantly growing and becoming more and more lucrative in recent years.