Smartphone-based tool MFine Pulse can monitor blood oxygen

Smartphone-based tool MFine Pulse can monitor blood oxygen

Apps like MFine’s seek to increase health awareness, empower their users to track conditions that require medical devices to help manage.

The mobile app is not intended to replace oximeter devices, which are still the most accurate way to measure oxygen saturation. Image: Dennis Wise / University of Washington

Telemedicine has received a much-needed injection in the arm at the COVID-19 it was. Gone are the days of people queuing for hours outside pharmacies, paying the retail price for disinfectants, pulse oximeters and PPE when the pandemic had just hit. Many companies jumped on the drawing board to find solutions to quarantine work and life from home. Bangalore-based digital health startup MFine was among those who took up the challenge with an app-based tool to monitor oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels using nothing more than the tip of a finger, the camera. a smartphone and a flash.

Currently, in beta testing for Android users, the tool, dubbed MFine ‘Pulse’, will debut on iOS in a few weeks. Even as clinical trials for the tool continue, the tool appears promising, with accuracy levels of 80%, according to a press release. At the launch of the company’s beta version of Android, thousands of users are using the tool, producing hundreds of reads every day that are fed into a machine learning algorithm, something that according to the company’s CTO Ajit Narayanan will certainly improve the accuracy of the tool in the coming months.

“For now, the goal is to make our SpO2 monitoring tool as accurate, if not more accurate, than the pulse oximeters available at the pharmacy,” Narayanan said.

The SpO2 tool uses a signal called a photoplethysmogram (PPG) – information in the form of reflected light that is collected from a user’s fingertip or wrist. This mechanism is similar to the PPG function of Apple watches. While Apple’s proprietary technology allows users to also get an “ECG” report that helps clinicians monitor irregular heart rhythms among other heart ailments, MFine’s proprietary technology offers users a window into a vital indicator of respiratory health. It uses the light from camera flashes to produce an optical image using light sensors built into smartphone cameras. When they’re not fueling our Instagram habits, these sensors can also measure changes in the way light is absorbed. The signals captured by the camera lens are divided into red, blue, or green elements based on the amount of light absorbed by the blood vessels under the skin at these wavelengths of light. This information is then sent to a machine learning algorithm developed by MFine, which finally produces a SpO2 reading.

Smartphone-based MFine Pulse tool can monitor blood oxygen with just a finger and a flash

The MFine application at a glance (L); instructions for users of the SpO2 tool and the tool itself (R). Image: MFine screenshots

Over time, these apps will become more accurate and more common, Narayanan says. A vital part of MFine’s efforts to make the mobile-based SpO2 tool more accurate, machine learning can study data patterns or numbers collected by instruments.

“So you have compiled a sequence of numbers from a PPG, but what does this mean for a consumer? ML can make these predictions quite well, ”Narayanan said. “Oxygen saturation, for example, is something you can train a model to do. The model is developed with a series of patterns, including variations, that decide whether a user’s condition is normal or abnormal.

You will be able to predict an outcome, with a high degree of precision, as long as the model itself is well done. But a smartphone-based SpO2 tool is unlikely to replace actual medical devices in the near future, according to Narayanan.

“We cannot replace a medical device with an application using current technology; That leap could happen years and years from now. But today you can get a reading almost instantly without that device, with a margin of error close to what a medical-grade device can give you, ”he says. “The idea is that everyone can measure their oxygen quite accurately.”

Smartphone-based MFine Pulse tool can monitor blood oxygen with just a finger and a flash

The human body requires and regulates a very precise and specific balance of oxygen in the blood. Image: MFine

Among the essentials for the home COVID-19 monitoring, pulse oximeters have long been a useful tool in respiratory health surveillance. The oxygen in the blood reveals the amount of oxygen carried by our red blood cells, a function that is strictly regulated by the body. A balance of oxygen-saturated blood with deoxygenated blood is vital for normal function, but most people, adults and children, do not need to monitor it regularly. Doctors may also not monitor SpO2 unless you show signs of respiratory distress, such as shortness of breath or chest pain. But for people with chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and now COVID-19, blood oxygen levels can be an essential indicator of health. It can even help make decisions about treatment, such as which method works and whether the dose needs to be adjusted.

A blood oxygen level below normal, a condition known as hypoxemia, is often a cause for concern. The lower a person’s oxygen level, the more severe the hypoxemia and the more likely it is that serious complications will occur to vital organs and their overall health.

For now, the goal with apps like MFine is to increase awareness of the user’s own health, to make it easier for people to monitor some medical conditions that require a device to track something that is happening inside the body. The Pulse SpO2 tool is part of a sea of ​​growing efforts to democratize healthcare and provide on-demand access to sensors and software that would not otherwise be at hand.

In the long term, MFine hopes to expand its telehealth offerings and turn the mobile phone into a tool that can manage a variety of diagnostics and vital sign monitoring. With more access to mobile phones and greater Internet coverage, the smartphone is undoubtedly becoming a multifaceted tool. Could it be the new “test tool” for your vital signs?

It’s just a question of “when,” according to Narayanan. The wealth of information it could provide to clinicians, researchers, and citizens alike could be a powerful boost in the COVID-19 was and beyond; where health literacy and awareness of how daily choices impact health could grow like never before.

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