Digital health start-up MFine has launched the MFine Pulse, an app based SPO2 (blood oxygen saturation) monitoring tool which enables users to keep track of their oxygen saturation levels without an additional device. Using the power of smartphones and AI, MFine Pulse helps users measure oxygen saturation using the phone camera and flash.
Measuring SPO2 levels is useful for people who have conditions that affect the oxygen saturation. For example, people with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions sleep apnea, heavy snoring and very young infants are recommended to monitor their oxygen saturation level regularly.
How does it work?
A photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal is obtained from the user’s fingertip using the smartphone camera. The PPG is an optically obtained plethysmogram that can be used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. The LED illuminates the skin and the smartphone camera measures the changes in light absorption.
The signal is then broken down into Red, Blue and Green parts and using the difference in levels of light absorbed across these different wavelengths, SPO2 is calculated by a machine learning algorithm. Currently, the MFine Pulse SPO2 measuring tool features 80 per cent medical grade accuracy.
The tool is in public beta for Android users and will soon be launched for iOS users. MFine is preparing for certifications of its algorithms, with data of hundreds of measurements to give medical grade accuracy and reliability to the algorithm.
Healthcare decentralisation
“We are excited to be in the midst of a massive transformation which will decentralise the healthcare processes and bring awareness, diagnosis and treatment that's literally in the hands of millions of people. Use of smartphones as an access tool to digital health has started and its use as a medical device will see many more innovations in the next few years. With the Covid-19 pandemic, telemedicine and digital healthcare delivery have proven to be the norm and digital tools like MFine Pulse will play a major role in the way healthcare providers handle diagnostics, monitoring and treatment plans, be it at a hospital or at home” said Ajit Narayanan, CTO, MFine.
In its beta roll out, thousands of users have already used the tool and currently hundreds of readings are recorded everyday. Moving beyond telemedicine consultations and services, MFine is working on next-gen AI technologies which aims to convert the mobile phone into a rich diagnostics and vitals monitoring tool. MFine will launch more such vitals monitoring & diagnostics tools in the coming days, elevating the use of smartphones as the new examination tool for vitals tracking.
Company history
Founded in 2017, MFine is focussed on delivering an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare service across India, and aims to be one of the largest virtual hospitals in the world with services across primary care, secondary care and chronic care management in collaboration with its trusted partners. With over 4,000 doctors including some of India’s top doctors from 600reputed hospitals covering 35 specialties on the platform, MFine provides users with on-demand access to quality medical care. In 2020, MFine expanded its geographical coverage beyond physical boundaries of the cities to serve people from over 1,000towns in India and launched several new services such as AI-based self-assessment of various health conditions and long term care programs for chronic conditions.