LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- By Min Kyeong-joong/Korea Biomedical Review correspondent -- Among the exhibitors of CES 2023, the world’s largest electronics/IT show, 466 or 15 percent registered for the digital health section. It reflects the fact that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the areas of personal health, anti-aging, and life extension are drawing increasing attention across all industries.

Here’s Korea Biomedical Review’s pick of best digital health rookies at CES 2023.

Blowing into Virawarn tells you if you have Covid in 60 secs

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic becoming endemic, easily detecting the Covid-19 virus is still an important business topic.

Opteev’s Virawarn, which won the CES 2023 Innovation Award, drew much attention at the CES Unveiled event. The device tells you if you have Covid-19, RSV, or influenza within 60 seconds.

Anyone who had been agonized by the painful nasal swab in a Covid-19 test would have thought if there was an easier way to get tested and Opteev accurately grasped the minds of these people.

The company claims that the device showed an accurate detection ability of close to 100 percent in clinical trials and can discriminate all Covid-19 variants and various types of influenza.

The device is awaiting FDA approval.

Valencell’s fingertip device measures blood pressure

KBR’s second pick is Valencell’s fingertip blood pressure monitor. The company said it was the world’s first cuffless device to measure blood pressure using patented biometric sensor technology and deep learning.

Valencell is a well-known digital health company that gets sensors from Samsung Electronics and Bose. Valencell CEO and Co-Founder Steven LeBoeuf holds patents for more than 100 wearable biomedical sensors. The device’s key technology is to utilize an algorithm that can measure blood pressure patterns by analyzing its own PPG data set on a fingertip device.

Once connected to the device, the app can log all past readings and graph trends over time, managing high blood pressure and suggesting diet and exercise plans to users, according to the company.

Valencell announced the development plan for the blood pressure monitor in 2021 and disclosed the finished product first at CES 2023. The device is awaiting FDA approval. The company expects the over-the-counter monitor would be available across the U.S. in late 2022 at a price tag of $99.

Arterya’s Blood’Up offers painless artery sampling

KBR’s third pick is Blood’Up, a medical device helping artery gas analysis without pain, by Arterya, a French start-up.  

Arterial blood gas analysis is one of the blood test methods in which blood is drawn from an artery and analyzed to check the concentration of PH, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and bicarbonate in the blood. Arterial blood is mainly collected through the radial artery on the inside of the wrist, and blood can be collected through the brachial artery of the elbow or the femoral artery of the groin. In the case of babies, blood is collected from the capillary of the heel.

Existing methods are known to be stressful both for patients and doctors.

According to Arterya, blood gas is performed every two seconds in France. About 30 percent of 12 million blood gas recipients fail in artery sampling, causing hospitals’ financial losses and waste of time. This problem made the company develop the device, it said.

Eargo’s upgraded hearing aid, JLab’s low-cost Earbuds

Eargo displayed two new hearing-aid products at CES 2023 that do not require fitting work and battery replacement. They are small enough to fit in the ear and comfortable to wear. They are over-the-counter hearing aids, so you can buy them online without a doctor’s appointment.

If Eargo products feel expensive, JLab’s Earbuds, expected to be priced at $99, can be an alternative.

JLab, the manufacturer of wireless earphones, is jumping into the hearing aid market with the strategy of providing low-priced products for all age groups.

hear DL’s noise suppression assistant app

A former POSTECH professor Park Hong-joon, CEO of hear DL, showcased the company’s noise suppression assistant app, which operates on a smartphone for the baby boomer generation.

It provides hearing aid and noise canceling functions at the same time by running deep learning on a smartphone. Anyone can use it by installing a hearing aid app with any earphones or headphones.