ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Movano's CEO John Mastrototaro talks about the future of the medical wearables market and about his company's pending beta release of its first product, a ring wearable for women. Excerpted from MedTech Strategist's feature-length interview with Mastrotoraro.
Advances in sensor technology and AI-driven data interpretation, along with widespread adoption of wearables such as smartwatches, have ignited a revolution in remote health monitoring, and a long list of both medtech and high-tech companies are angling for a share of this multibillion-dollar opportunity. (See “Remote Patient Monitoring Enters a New Era,” MedTech Strategist, June 10, 2020.)
One young company making progress in this space is Movano Inc. Founded in 2018, Movano is positioning itself as a medtech company and plans to pursue FDA clearance for its wearable sensors and associated software. The company’s core technology is a proprietary, miniaturized radiofrequency (RF) sensor that Movano is currently developing for both noninvasive glucose and cuffless blood pressure monitoring. The company has completed some preliminary studies on that technology with promising results and plans to conduct more clinical trials this year.
Meanwhile, Movano is working toward commercial release of its first product, a ring form factor that will incorporate other sensor technologies capable of monitoring more standard fitness health metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature, respiration, oxygen saturation, sleep stages, and activity levels (steps). An accompanying app provides insights gleaned from the data that correlate certain activities, such as exercise, with other patterns, such as sleep, with the goal of helping users make healthier life choices.
The company, which completed an IPO in 2021, is planning a beta release of its Movano Ring in the second half of this year. The device has a sleek, metallic design intended to appeal specifically to women, who the company says are more likely to use a wearable, but whose design preferences have been largely ignored to date.
In our full Q&A with Movano’s CEO, John Mastrototaro, PhD, we speak about the company’s technology, its future plans, and the future of the remote monitoring wearables industry in general. Mastrototaro has over 30 years of experience in the medical device industry, much of which was spent at Medtronic plc’s diabetes division, and was chief operating officer of Orthosensor Inc. (acquired by Stryker) prior to joining Movano.
According to Mastrototaro, Movano’s goal is to provide medical-grade wearable solutions that are simple to use, affordable, and deliver actionable insights. And he is not dissuaded by the growing competition from tech companies looking to enter the space. In setting itself up as a medical device company out of the gate, Movano is “separating itself” from much of the competition, he says. But ultimately, he points out, “it is a huge market, and there’s room for a lot of players with different approaches.”
Excerpted from “Movano: Bringing Medical-Grade Wearables to the Masses,” MedTech Strategist, May 11, 2022.
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