We’ve been measuring blood pressure the same way for 150 years. Isn’t it time for something new?

Bob Messerschmidt, CEO of Nueon, joined Pat Salber () to discuss a better way to measure blood pressure at HealthTech Conference 2014 in San Francisco. It turns out that the membranes of red blood cells change their deformability when they are exposed to elevated blood pressure. And that creates an optical signal that can be measured. Like the blood glucose measurement hemoglobin A1c that also measures changes in red blood cells (RBCs), this measurement will give a reading that will correlate with average blood pressure readings of about three months. Clinically, this is probably much more important than a single blood pressure reading obtained during an office visit. Bob says the technology that measures RBC deformability already exists. His company is now raising a funding round to carry out the clinical trials needed to prove the approach works. Who knows? Perhaps in a few years we will have a finger prick blood draw to measure blood pressure instead of a blood pressure cuff.

Read the full article on The Doctor Weighs In: http://thedoctorweighsin.com/reimagining-blood-pressure-measurement-nueon-story/

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