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Blood Pressure?

BCNX
over 5 years ago

A friend has recently showed me his fitness tracker. I was shocked to find his was able to "measure" BP, while my FR935 cannot - nor can the newly introduced FR945 or Fenix 6. Mind you: the FR/Fenix are 10x the price of that fitness tracker - but lacking when it comes to such features (and abundantly rich is other features...)

Now, I know BP values displayed by the fitness tracker are only an estimate (but a pretty decent one - I have read some articles; apparently, this is nothing new - same as my ignorance.) Continuous PPG (Photoplethysmogram) monitoring allows for a number of interesting physiological indicators to be estimated. Diving into the SDK (I was actually exploring the option of developing such widget myself...) , it would appear as if Monkey C does not provide an application with enough data to be able to estimate these indicators (possibly, the H/W itself does not support providing this data to the app, "simply" converting the HR signal to simple 1/0 sequence rather than providing a DAC converted value; I don't really know the FR internals...)

Surly, I don't expect the FR to function as a medical device. However, having such indicators available would be interesting, and of great value.

Should I wait for FR955/Fenix 7? Is this something that might be of interest to other users?

  • +1 over 4 years ago in reply to 6024645

    I'm not asking for a device that measures blood pressure but optional field on the app to track manual entered blood pressure from whatever source. I can track years of HR m, distance, time and weight and look for trends why not a field for BP.?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to azoomin

    I also would love to have the ability to track my health number in one location. 

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    There are advanced prototypes that are actually in early production. They are not only accurate, but medical grade. The technology, as well as several specific devices are approved by the FDA. The days of a blood pressure cuff are numbered. See Aktiia

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hello I am a lifetime Garmin Customer.   I have been holding off upgrading my Fenix . I have been waiting for the Blood Pressure feature to be added.

      How much longer ?

     This feature would make Garmin complete when it comes to Health and Fitness  use.

    Thanks Andrew

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to itradefx

    Hello Itradefx, we are also long time Garmin users.
    This is the area for Forerunner 945 questions. I wish you good luck waiting, there is nothing in sight. Repeating myself: wrist based cuffs, even with FDA medical approval, is useless. Every shift we go so someone who has "high" BP because those devices are random number generators. If you shrink that into the wristband of a watch, it will become even more useless.

    Usefull for us Garmin customers would be the ability to track BP and blood sugar (not only as a part of pregnancy tracking like it is now possible) within Garmin Connect. Also, there are now sugar sensors wich would be nice to have the data via ANT in the .fit files.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to itradefx

    Are you happy if someone makes CIQ application that gives you just some random imaginary numbers?

    I mean, I would love to see the Blood Ox measurements to be as accurate than some cheap fingertip readers.

    Having something is not good as if it's not accurate or reliable.