A Company That Makes Technological Products That Monitor Hearts, As Heart Disease Is The Leading Cause Of Death For Men And Women
"We want to make preventative health care easy and approachable for everyone," says Naama Stauber, co-founder of MOCACARE, a company that makes technological products that monitor hearts. As heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the USA, having products that support positive heart health could be tremendously impactful for society.
Right now, MOCACARE makes two products MOCAheart and MOCAcuff. MOCAheart quickly scans thumbs to "provide on-the-go measurements of your heart rate, blood oxygen, and pulse wave velocity," according to the website. The MOCAcuff, released in November of 2016, measures blood pressure. Both of the products connect to the MOCACARE app, which tracks the data, provides helpful lifestyle choices, and connects the data with loved ones.
MOCACARE started in 2014 when Naama Stauber and Dr. Daniel Wei-Chen Hong met at Stanford. "I am from the suburbs of Tel Aviv in Israel and come from a software development background," explains Stauber. Stauber worked for the Isreali military in control systems and product development. After leaving the military, Stauber worked for a security startup, but "I wanted to enhance healthcare using technology," Stauber says. She moved from Israel to Stanford where she started working on innovate healthcare products. She met Dr. Wei-Chen Hong who took care of the medicinal side of things and MOCACARE started.
"Through research, we realized people would not follow their Doctor's orders of measuring blood pressure if there is extra steps," Stauber says. She says even something as putting on the cuff to measure blood pressure, amounts to a lot of patients, "throwing the machine in the closet." Hong and Stauber made the MOCAcuff in response.
The MOCAcuff measures blood pressure, puts the color-coded, based on American Heart Association's categories, results on the screen that are synced to a persons smartphone where the data is stored, shared if desired, and utilized to provide healthy lifestyle choices. "So far we have been overwhelming surprised with feedback," Stauber says, "people love the design, that it saves history and how simple it is to use."
The MOCAheart provides even more data on the heart, again with the goal of improved heart health. For example, according to the website the Pulse Wave Velocity, which MOCAheart measures, is “an important indicator of cardiovascular health correlated to your vascular status” and if the data is less than ideal it “can be improved through lifestyle changes” which the website recommends.
The MOCAcuff, like the MOCAheart, syncs to a smartphone even if the phone is not readily available when data is collected. The app provides an interpretation of the data over time. "It uses AHA (American Heart Association) recommendations based on data trends and measures progress towards goals to help you achieve them," Stauber says. Another key feature of the app is the ability to share the data with loved ones and Doctors. This is good for an older person whose kids or Doctor want to keep track of their heart conditions.
The typical demographic of MOCACARE products is 40 and up. Stauber explains, “Usually if a person starts to fluctuations of vitals, has a heart disease or some sort of existing condition,” they will use a MOCACARE product. As the target demographic is vast, from 40s to mid-90s, the products have to be extremely simple to use and elegantly designed. At Stanford, Stauber utilized a team of product development in California and a development team in Taipei, Taiwan. “ We have a really good team of designers. We really want to make sure the design looks good and is easy to upgrade,” she explains, “and the emphasize is on simplicity and accuracy.” As a result, bot the MOCAheart and MOCAcuff are elegant products that fit in pockets, purses, or elsewhere.
The hope for MOCACARE is to make it easier and easier for everyone to manage heart health. “We are hoping to increasingly focus on preventative health care,” Stauber says. Meaning instead of using MOCAheart and MOCAcuff as reactionary mechanisms, they can be used to give data to relatively healthy people in order to encourage positive trends. “If a person is able to have concrete data that supports their desire to park the car farther away from work in order to get more walking in, it will give them a bigger incentive to do so,” Stauber explains. They also hope to continue to improve the app so it gives unique lifestyle choices that are, as Stauber says, “tailored to specific needs” and curated to the consumer. As proactive health is a goal, they are hoping to lower the age demographics that use the product, something that show in the sleek technological design and a commitment to make heart monitoring an “easy, intuitive, and reliable experience.”
Andrew Malo
A graduate of Northeastern Illinois University in Education, Andrew has taught for the past decade in Chicago, New Mexico, and Japan. He enjoys tinkering with trucks and motorcycles, woodworking, reading and computer programming.
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MOCACare, driven by a vision to combine health, technology, design, and comfort. With a goal to make heart health monitoring an easy, intuitive, and reliable experience.