Founder Spotlight - CardioSignal

Today, on the series of "founder spotlights" by Plug and Play UK , we turn our attention to Juuso Blomster , the founder and CEO of CardioSignal by Precordior

Here are some of the responses to the questions we posed:

1) What is CardioSignal?

The origins of CardioSignal technology were developed in the University of Turku, Finland, where the studies started in 2012. This work discovered that smartphone motion sensors provide accurate heart motion assessment and could be used for heart disease detection. In 2017, they founded the company and soon after he became the CEO. Today, CardioSignal is a class II medical device for detecting signs of atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder, with new clinical capabilities across various heart diseases under development.

2) Who is Juuso Blomster ?

He is a cardiologist by training and has been working in clinical cardiology since 2007. Besides clinical work, he had been working in pharmaceutical industry with large international clinical trials. He was always curious about new advances in cardiology so founding a startup felt like the natural next step. Throughout his career, he felt the need to work with patients. It helps him stay centered on what is important, and provides invaluable insights to ensure that their technology serves those in highest risk.

3) What is CardioSignal's WHY"?

During his career, he had witnessed new innovations becoming available in healthcare, and on the other hand meeting with real patients who were in massive risk of developing - or already suffering from - a heart condition. He felt the need to bridge this gap. He remembers seeing some when the first study results come out from clinical trials with their sensors and thinking that they have probably made the biggest discovery in non-invasive cardiology in decades.

4) Challenges Faced and Overcoming Them?

The road from discovering something novel to getting it in the hands of patients is very long. Combining high ambition in clinical validation, regulation and commercial success? are among the top challenges – and staying patient centric while doing that. Their decision to take the long road of robust clinical validation was the right one, even if it delayed the commercial success. Without this careful validation, it would be very difficult to convince people there is a new clinical modality for heart disease detection.

5) What is the Future for Health-tech Innovations?

One relates to price and accessibility. He believes that the technology already exists to solve some of the fundamental challenges in health care, but it is currently failing to improve health outcomes for people who need it most – the elderly, people with chronic illness or underserved populations (rural areas, socio-economic situation, racial inequity). The second is empowering primary care professionals who are the ones who interact with high volume of at-risk patients. The equation of rising prevalence in heart diseases combined with current resources in healthcare isn’t sustainable. Innovation is actually a necessity if we plan to have a sustainable health care system in 10 years’ time.

6) How has Plug and Play UK helped?

Plug and Play has provided them a platform to interact with large industry players who are the ones that can accelerate the adoption of emerging technologies. Going forward, he is very excited to see this network bring like-minded people together, including health systems, in an effort to concretely address the most critical issues in healthcare – not just hype about innovation.