MedTech Startup VentriJect Selected to Demonstrate Siesmofit System to United Nations Digital Health Symposium

July 26, 2024 — VentriJect, a Danish medtech start-up seeking to revolutionize the way cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is measured, has been invited to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York to demonstrate Seismofit, its portable and fast VO2 max estimation solution. The demonstration will take place at the 4th United Nations General Assembly Digital Health Symposium, being held on September 24-26 in New York.

This news comes after the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) at Maynooth University in the Republic of Ireland selected Seismofit as one of five top digital health solutions helping to drive a radical transformation in healthcare, according to a written statement released by the company about the presentation. The IVI accolade follows several major accolades for VentriJect, including winning the second-place award at the Healthcare Innovation World Cup in November 2023 from a pool of over 300 of the most innovative global healthcare start-ups.

The IVI is working towards a transition to a new kind of wellness and health system fueled and empowered by digital technologies. Judges highlighted Seismofit as a potential digital health ‘game changing solution’ for making healthcare affordable and accessible under their “Stay Left, Shift Left-10X” methodology.

This concept, reported the company, is about using technology to develop preventative approaches that are 10 times more impactful than the current available solution. It proposes that only by using technology can a preventative approach to healthcare become more prevalent globally; this would reduce the number of people in acute care, thereby minimizing the cost of healthcare and maximizing patient experience and quality of life.

Seismofit enables CRF to be estimated without the need for exercise and in less than three minutes using an advanced algorithm together with a technology called seismocardiography. This provides a clinically validated way to estimate VO2 max, which is an indicator of CRF. There is significant published evidence that CRF is one of the best indicators of health and has a strong correlation with other health indicators and mortality.^[1] The product is CE-marked, and presently available in select markets.

VO2 max is usually measured through a Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test (CPET) test. However, this technique can take over 20 minutes to conduct, and requires specialist staff and exercise until exhaustion, making it unpleasant for most and unsuitable for the elderly or those with an injury or disability. VentriJect’s device eliminates the need for this by recording chest wall vibrations caused by the beating heart and uses an AI assisted algorithm to accurately estimate VO2 max.

The company has been focused on using technology, combined with a preventative approach to healthcare, to improve patient outcomes. This has become especially important as healthcare systems have come under increasing pressure from strained resources and ageing populations across the globe.

“We are on a mission to help transform global health and wellbeing, so it’s great to have been provided the most prestigious platform of all to do so, the United Nations” said Mikkel Kristiansen, CEO at VentriJect. Kristiansen added, “We’re delighted that the IVI has recognized the importance of making the measurement of CRF accessible to all and the potential our technology has to shift from acute care to preventative care. We can’t wait to showcase it in New York.”

The Danish-based company, VentriJect, was founded in 2018, as a spin out from the Danish university, Aalborg University. The company was founded with a mission to revolutionize how cardiorespiratory fitness is measured. With the clinical-validated and patented technology, Seismofit, they have set out on that journey.

With the Seismofit system, a person’s cardiorespiratory fitness (quantified as VO2max) can be estimated in less than 3 minutes without the use of exercise. This is a revolution in how we estimate cardiorespiratory fitness. A small sensor registers the movements in the chest, caused by the beating heart, also called seismocardiography. Utilizing this together with the VentriJect algorithm, an accurate depiction of the VO2max is delivered via the VentriJect app to the user.

^[1] Kokkinos P, Faselis C, et al. Changes in Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Survival in Patients With or Without Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 81(12) 2023, 1137-1147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2023.01.027.

More information: www.ventriject.com