Toumaz, a developer of low-power wireless systems, made $1.1 million (750,000 pounds) off the first deployments of its SensiumVitals healthcare monitoring technology according to the company's annual trading update. That's up from just $90,000 (60,000 pounds) last year.
SensiumVitals is a peel-and-stick sensor that continuously monitors vital signs, including temperature, heart rate, and respiration rate and transmits that data wirelessly to a hospital monitor. Toumaz is one of the early players in digital health: it was already testing its sensor in 2009. In 2011, it received a $2 million investment from NantHealth, which a few months later became the technology's US distributor.
Toumaz's healthcare business is a small portion of its revenue though, with the majority coming from its digital audio business. The total revenue for the company last year was just shy of $40 million (26.2 million pounds).
"In healthcare, the first deployments of SensiumVitals provided us with early revenues and valuable experience," CEO Anthony Sethill said in a statement. "Our deployments are expected to gain increasing traction across a number of territories over the next few months."
The technology is currently deployed in the UK, the US, Australia, and Portugal, including Spire Healthcare’s Montefiore Hospital in the UK, and Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan. The technology was also piloted at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. It is used in a mix of general ward and emergency room settings.
Toumaz said in the update that the company has continued to iterate the software based on feedback from customers, and has begun a second round of deployments in Italy and France. The company is also working with the University of Leicester to add blood pressure and blood oxygenation (Sp02) to future generations of the device.
On its website, the company gives some indications of its future plans as well, which could take SensiumVitals out of the hospital and into the home.
"Looking longer term, the group has been assessing potential opportunities in the home health sector," they write. "Opportunities may exist to introduce tailored SensiumVitals solutions for patients recently discharged from hospital or those with long term chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or diabetes. However, in the short term, the company’s key priority is to build the SensiumVitals business in the hospital market."
