MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yale Zhang, Founder of Safe Heart, today announced a major partnership, new functionality and a “Buy One, Give One” program for the company’s iOximeter device. Speaking at Google headquarters in Mountain View on the future of vital signs monitoring, Zhang revealed the following:
- Safe Heart has entered into a partnership with a University of Oxford Research Center to expand the company’s line of low-cost monitoring equipment including a smartphone blood pressure monitor retailing for less than $30 U.S.
- iOximeter has added respiration rate and perfusion index measurements for both the iOS and Android apps of the world’s first pulse oximeter powered entirely through a smartphone audio jack.
- Buy-one, give-one: For each iOximeter purchased through Safe Heart’s website from now until November, the company will donate one unit to charity.
“Through our partnership with Safe Heart we hope to achieve significant reductions in the cost of medical devices and empower healthcare worldwide,” said Prof. Gari Clifford, Director of OxCAHT - the Centre for Affordable Healthcare Technology, based in Kellogg College at the University of Oxford. Prof. Clifford’s research team focuses on Patient Monitoring and Sustainable Medical Technology, conducting evidence-based research in developing countries. OxCAHT’s designs have won multiple awards including the 2011 Engineering World Health annual design award and the 2012 Dell Social Innovation Award for the world’s first blood pressure device powered entirely by a smartphone.
“Smartphones continue increasing in power, affordability and availability across the planet, providing an intuitive and personal tool for understanding complex data. We create affordable, user-friendly devices lowering the cost of health care and improving access, availability, and lives worldwide,” said Zhang. “On the app side we will create new functionality by improving our algorithms and performance of existing Safe Heart devices. Our focus is on both the device and the service delivery.”
Since the debut of iOximeter at Engadget’s Expand NYC conference in November 2013, Safe Heart has successfully crowdfunded and launched the world’s first pulse oximeter (a device that measures blood oxygen saturation & heart rate) powered entirely through a smartphone’s audio jack.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Safe Heart USA, Inc. comprises experts in medical device technology, signal processing, manufacturing and distribution. Contact Yale Zhang, visit www.safeheartus.com, email yale@safeheartus.com, call 678-908-5168.