Bodyport raises $11.2M for cardiac health
Bodyport, which helps to manage heart disease, has raised $11.2 million Series A funding led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF). The investment will be used to support the launch of a ‘virtual cardiac clinic’.
The company has developed a biomarker platform that is able to detect early signs of cardiovascular disease through sensors in a bathroom scale. The Bodyport Scale is designed to detect cardiac signals through a user’s feet and to predict cardiovascular risk. The technology allows health care providers to remotely assess their patients and monitor trends in cardiovascular metrics and body weight. Providers within Bodyport’s network will be able totrack collated step-on data and overall heart health trends without a patient having to come for a formal appointment unless something is wrong. The visualisation of step-on trends can help alert if a patient may be at risk of deteriorating, which can prompt earlier interventions and doctor’s visits as opposed to critical care hospitalizations if this were to go undetected.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of deaths around the world, accounting for more than 17 million lives each year according to the WHO, and almost 85% of these deaths come as a result of heart attack or stroke. Most cardiovascular diseases could be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors, such as unhealthy diet, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol abuse. Additionally, people with higher cardiovascular risk due to family history, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, need to be regularly monitored and evaluated for cardiovascular risk.
Typically, people are alerted of their deteriorating cardiovascular health under a clinical setting following a cardiac event, a reaction to a medication, or a trip to the hospital, meaning that diagnoses are often made too late when the disease has already worsened. Bodyport aims to enable earlier detection of heart disease by routinely assessing cardiovascular health and enabling it to be treated or managed in a more timely manner.
“Despite the fact that cardiovascular disease is largely preventable, it remains the leading global cause of death,” said Bodyport co-founder and CEO Corey Centen. “We’re focused on changing the way patients and care teams manage heart disease. By shifting the technology patients can access from a clinical setting to their own home, we are aiming to predict changes in health status before a hospital visit becomes necessary. Ultimately, this early detection could help push care delivery away from its reactive model, reducing costs and drastically improving the quality of life for patients dealing with chronic disease.”
Bodyport was founded in 2015 by biomedical engineers Corey Centen and Sarah Smith. The San Franciso-based company has raised total funding of $15.8 million.