At the High Tech Campus, seven start-ups have been busy with the HighTechXL accelerator program for the last three months. They are on their way to the XL Day on 6 December, where they can win over future investors. E52 takes a glimpse into the crowd and works towards XL Day with portraits of the start-ups. Today: HeartIn.
HeartIn is originally a Ukrainian start-up, headquartered in the US. The R&D department of the young company is based in Ukraine. CIO Igor Voronkov talks about the creation of the company: “The idea began eight years ago when our founders met. Alex Vinogradov, our CEO, got the idea to make a product that can change your heart monitoring. His father died of a heart problem, while he had the opportunity to find a solution. This inspired him to start the company together with our current CMO, a professor at Bogomolets National Medical University.”
HeartIn has developed smart T-shirts for both the consumer and medical markets, which can measure your heart rhythm with various sensors. The product aimed at the consumer market is already on sale. It’s a sports shirt that measures your electrocardiogram, so you can train better and more effectively. The T-shirt for the medical market can detect various cardiovascular diseases. “It is a comprehensive system of cardio-evaluation using an online consultant with AI-based real-time remote heart monitoring. The T-shirts come with an app that tells you about your heart problem, stress level, and workout charts.” Before it can actually be used in hospitals and by patients, it has to be certified. HeartIn hopes to get approval from the FDA in April 2018 so that the product can be used in the US.
“A cardiologist can remotely monitor patients while sitting in his own office”Igor Voronkov, CIO HeartIn
The problem that HeartIn tries to solve is how the heart rate of patients with cardiovascular disease is measured. “At the moment, if you have a cardiovascular disease, the hospital will give you a large device that you have to attach to yourself with cables and stickers. It is very uncomfortable to wear such a device and only when you return it, the cardiologist can access and analyze the data. Our device is different. A T-shirt is a lot more comfortable and you can easily use it at home.” The cardiologist can monitor the data in real-time, saving him time and allowing the hospital to treat more patients. “This way, a cardiologist can monitor patients remotely from his own office. If something happens, the patient is notified about the problem and can consult with the doctor online!”
Several European and American hospitals are already interested in working with the start-up. “There is a private hospital in Croatia that is interested in our hardware. Several hospital networks in the USA are waiting for our FDA certification, so they can start using our product. We are also currently negotiating with a hospital that is affiliated to Harvard. We are focusing primarily on the American market because the simpler regulations make it easier to go there.”
HeartIn is now looking for investors so that the company can grow further. “We have all the fitness product and a supply chain and are ready to expand. We have many ideas for the future, but everything depends on investment. Our dream is to make a T-shirt with which you can see exactly how your body is working. A T-shirt that can notify you about a problem before it occurs.”
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