Lithuanian company Teltonika has initiated mass production of its smart medical wristband for detecting irregularities in heart rhythm.

The device called TeltoHeart developed when Kaunas University of Technology scientists, and representatives of Vilnius University, built an algorithm to detect atrial fibrillation. Teltonika agreed to license the patented technology and incorporated it into a wearable device.

Teltonika offers a telemedicine ecosystem, MyHealth, which includes a data-collecting app for mobile devices, TeltoHeart and the TeltoCare platform which is used by doctors and medical institutions to monitor patients’ data.

Once the first line of production is complete, the devices will be distributed to India, Cyprus, Spain, and Peru, while some of the devices will stay in Lithuania to be tested by private medical institutions. The system will also be available for personal use from sales partners or medical bodies.

According to Teltonika, nearly one billion people around the world suffer from various heart rhythm disorders. Many of them can be spotted early by smart devices and treated effectively.

“The ecosystem of telemedicine devices that will be developed in the future will help to address more persistent problems in the healthcare system. For example, doctors will be able to serve more patients with the ability to analyse data remotely. And by diagnosing diseases at an early stage, treatment costs and hospital workloads can be reduced,” said Teltonika CEO Martynas Osauskas.

Lithuania has seen a growth in biotech and medtech companies and many foreign companies are opting to manufacture in the country due to government incentives and its talent pool. 

In the first half of 2020 the cardiovascular medical device market demonstrated a decline in revenue which was attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it rebounded in the second half of 2020.

GlobalData forecasts the global market value for cardiovascular devices to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% to $62 billion by 2025.