BOSTON, MASSACHUSSETTS — STAT Health has emerged from stealth mode to introduce a 24/7 in-ear wearable device designed to measure blood flow to the head. The wearable aims to provide a better understanding of symptoms such as dizziness, brain fog, headaches, fainting, and fatigue that occur when standing, which are commonly associated with illnesses like long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and other orthostatic syndromes.
The device has undergone clinical testing at Johns Hopkins and has been peer-reviewed in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, demonstrating its ability to predict fainting minutes before it happens.
Backed by $5.1 million in seed funding from investors including J2 Ventures and BonAngels Venture Partners, as well as grant funding from the U.S. Air Force, STAT Health aims to address the issue of reduced blood flow to the brain in individuals with these illnesses. Doctors from prestigious institutions like Johns Hopkins, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School have used ultrasound to show that measuring cerebral blood flow is a key biomarker for assessing the presence and severity of these “invisible illnesses.”
STAT Health co-founders Paul Jin and Daniel Lee.
Using Cerebral Blood Flow as Biomarker of Health
To create a wearable form factor, STAT Health employs an optical sensor and accesses a shallow ear artery to measure blood flow to the head as a proxy for ultrasound-derived cerebral blood flow. This approach takes advantage of the ear’s proximity to the brain and major arteries, offering new biometric possibilities. The ear’s isolation from arm motion interference, which often affects other wearables’ accuracy in monitoring heart metrics during daily tasks, further enhances its suitability for monitoring the brain and heart.
“Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF) is the critical missing vital sign – poor CBF is the cause of common orthostatic symptoms such as dizziness and brain fog. My Dutch colleagues have measured this with ultrasound on over a thousand patients. However, it’s not easy to measure CBF, so most clinics approximate using secondary metrics of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure, which often mislead. Unfortunately, this frequently leads to the wrong conclusion that the symptoms are just psychological, when in fact, there are physiological abnormalities.”
–Peter Rowe, M.D., Professor of Chronic Fatigue and Related Disorders at Johns Hopkins Medicine
Leveraging the Ear’s “Biometric Goldmine”
The STAT wearable is touted as the world’s smallest device of its kind, even smaller than popular products like Bose sleepbuds and some invisible-in-the-canal hearing aids. It incorporates advanced optical sensors, an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, temperature sensors, AI edge computing, a multi-day battery life, and a micro solar panel.
STAT auto-detects your every stand, and tracks how your Heart Rate, Blood Pressure Trend, and Blood Flow to Head change in response. STAT distills that into an Up Score to track your time spent upright, and a Flow Score to help you pace yourself using your body’s signals.
The wearable can be worn in-ear 24/7, including during sleep and showering, and offers the convenience of solar charging while in use, potentially eliminating the need for frequent removal to charge.
“It’s well understood that the ear is a biometric gold mine because of its close proximity to the brain and major arteries. This allows for new biometrics such as Blood Flow to Head and Blood Pressure Trend* to be possible.” said Daniel Lee, co-founder and CEO of STAT Health. “In addition, the ear is largely isolated from data corruption caused by arm motion – a problem that plagues current wearables and prevents them from monitoring heart metrics during many daily tasks. The ear is really the ideal window into the brain and heart.”
About the STAT Wearable
Size comparison of STAT devices vs. Bose sleepbud
STAT is the world’s smallest wearable, half the rigid volume of Bose sleepbuds, and even smaller than some invisible-in-the-canal hearing aids. In addition to the advanced optical sensors, the device incorporates an accelerometer, a pressure sensor, temperature sensors, AI edge computing, multi-day battery life, and a micro solar panel.
STAT can be worn in-ear 24/7 — it co-exists with more than 90% of devices that go in/around your ear, and can be left in while sleeping and showering. And because it can charge using solar while in-ear, some may never have to take it out to charge.
The STAT earpiece auto-detects a user’s every stand to track how Heart Rate, Blood Pressure Trend*, and Blood Flow to Head change in response. STAT distills that into an Up Score to track time spent upright, and a Flow Score to help users pace their recovery by watching for blood flow abnormalities. STAT then learns about each user’s unique body over time to provide personalized coaching to promote healthy lifestyle choices, such as informed hydration/salt intake, and paced rehab.
“Nobody has realized the ear’s true potential due to the miniaturization and complex systems design needed to make a practical and user-friendly ear wearable. I’ve been pioneering ultra miniature in-ear electronics for about a decade including my work bringing Bose sleepbuds to market, and it still took us three years to figure this out. After multiple engineering breakthroughs, we’ve succeeded in unlocking the ear to combine the convenience and long-term nature of wearables with the high fidelity nature of obtrusive clinical monitors. No other device comes close along the axes of wearability and cardiac signal quality, which is why we believe STAT is truly the world’s most advanced wearable.”
–Daniel Lee, co-founder and CEO of STAT Health
The company is now taking pre-order reservation deposits on their newly-launched website, www.stat-health.com, offering VIP early adopter perks including early access, beta test opportunities, and more.
About STAT Health
STAT Health is a digital health company improving the quality of life for people living with cardiovascular disease, starting with orthostatic syndromes. STAT does this through its hardware platform — its in-ear wearable — and targeted software programs built atop STAT’s unparalleled 24/7 cardiac data. Founded in 2020, STAT Health has received more than $5.1 million in financing. The founders, Daniel Lee and Paul Jin, previously ran Bose’s Health Product Innovation Group, and Lee was the inventor of Bose sleepbuds. For more information, visit www.stat-health.com.
*STAT’s BP Trend algorithm does not output mmHg, but instead provides a 0-20 Trend score. It is not intended for diagnostic use and intentionally cannot be compared against diagnostic criteria such as the 130/80 mmHg threshold.
Source: STAT Health
