Last month, Medgadget had the opportunity to visit the great state of Texas for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) event. We had a chance to chat with Yoku Méndez, CEO of Jalisco, México-based Soluciones Kenko. Their product is an innovative wearable called ECGlove which is designed to help doctors and paramedics quickly check patients for arrhythmias.
ECGlove consists of a common suede glove that a cyclist might wear, except that the fingertips of the thumb, index, and middle fingers are studded with metal electrodes. By placing the three fingers on a patient’s chest near the heart, ECGlove can rapidly record a 3-lead ECG through a module on the user’s wrist to help detect a possible arrhythmia. ECGlove even contains retractable ECG cables that can snap onto standard ECG electrode pads to record a traditional ECG.
Méndez shared with us that in addition to just the high-tech glove, his company is developing the algorithms and AI that can provide a diagnosis of a patient’s cardiac rhythm. For victims of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF), time is of the essence, so it’s neat to see a device that can rapidly and efficiently assess the heart’s condition.
Since starting in January 2016, ECGlove has received the support of Plug and Play, TecLean, TecLaunchpad, and Angel Ventures accelerator programs in Mexico. They’ll be launching this summer in partnership with Arrow Electronics first as a non-medical wearable while seeking COFEPRIS (Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk is a regulatory body of the Mexican government approval and FDA clearance here in the U.S.