MFine Launches SPO2 tracking tool- MFine Pulse on its App

Hyderabad: India’s leading Digital Health startup MFine has launched the MFine Pulse, an app based SPO2 (blood oxygen saturation) monitoring tool which enables users to keep track of their oxygen saturation levels without needing an additional device. Using the power of smartphones and AI, MFine Pulse helps users measure oxygen saturation using the phone camera and flash. In its beta roll out, thousands of users have already used the tool and currently hundreds of readings are recorded everyday. Moving beyond telemedicine consultations and services, MFine is working on next-gen AI technologies which aims to convert the mobile phone into a rich diagnostics and vitals monitoring tool. MFine will launch more such vitals monitoring & diagnostics tools in the coming days, elevating the use of smartphones as the new examination tool for vitals tracking.

MFine has built a proprietary algorithm that measures the oxygen saturation using a smartphone camera. A photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal is obtained from the user’s fingertip using the smartphone camera. The PPG is an optically obtained plethysmogram that can be used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. The LED illuminates the skin and the smartphone camera measures the changes in light absorption. The signal is then broken down into Red, Blue and Green parts and using the difference in levels of light absorbed across these different wavelengths, SPO2 is calculated by a machine learning algorithm. Currently, the MFine Pulse SPO2 measuring tool features 80% medical grade accuracy. The tool is in public beta for Android users and will soon be launched for iOS users. MFine is preparing for certifications of its algorithms, with data of hundreds of measurements to give medical grade accuracy and reliability to the algorithm.

Measuring SPO2 levels is useful for people who have conditions that affect the oxygen saturation. For example, people with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions sleep apnea, heavy snoring and very young infants are recommended to monitor their oxygen saturation level regularly.

India currently has half a billion smartphone users and it is estimated to reach 820 million in 2022. On the back of falling prices of mobile devices and the growing adoption of 4G services, smartphones have a good penetration even in rural areas where other sophisticated infrastructure is absent. Using smartphones to monitor health vitals supplemented by telemedicine consultations can prove to be a game changer for India. Smartphones and wearable technologies are increasingly being used as affordable, user-friendly and pervasive healthcare solutions that users can use to proactively manage their health conditions and avoid unnecessary hospitalization. While wearables cater to a certain section of the society, smartphones are more ubiquitous in India. Smartphones as a health monitoring device will play a major role in the way users track their vital parameters and healthcare providers handle diagnostics.  

MFine is focussed on delivering an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare service across India, and aims to be one of the largest virtual hospitals in the world with services across primary care, secondary care and chronic care management in collaboration with its trusted partners. With over 4,000 doctors including some of India’s top doctors from 600 reputed hospitals covering 35 specialties on the platform, MFine provides users with on-demand access to quality medical care. In 2020, MFine expanded its geographical coverage beyond physical boundaries of the cities to serve people from over 1,000 towns in India and launched several new services such as AI-based self-assessment of various health conditions and long term care programs for chronic conditions.