Smart Blood Pressure Monitor
QardioArm
Qardio
Through industrial design and engineering expertise, Shore enabled Qardio’s vision of a stylish and portable Smart Blood Pressure Monitor to create award-winning QardioArm.
Background
Designing devices for everyday use presents the challenge of building a product that’s medically accurate and clinically validated, while making sure it’s unobtrusive, attractive to the eye and easy to use.
The goal for Qardio was a device, sampling biometric data for chronic conditions, that people would feel comfortable using anywhere. It was specifically to look unlike a medical device or indeed any other blood pressure monitor on the market.
The monitor contains a digital automated sphygmomanometer which measures blood pressure at the arm of the user with a standard oscillometric method. It is then paired with an app on a user’s phone to receive and store the medical data and upload it to a healthcare provider as required. Critically, this allows real time visualisation of blood pressure data for the patient over extended periods in a ‘normal life’ context, without any white coat syndrome distortions.
Our approach centred on creating an empowering product experience. Building on Qardio’s existing electronics and software design, our engineers repackaged the internal components into a very small and stylish monitor. We focused on all key user interfaces to ensure the product experience was simple and seamless.
This was the first product on the market for Qardio. Our approach de-risked the development process, delivering a stylish and easy to use monitor that sets the standard in healthcare management.
Value Delivered
- Complete Design and Mechanical Engineering
- Optimisation of electronics and mechanics
- Design fully aligned to Qardio brand language
- Creation of premium product experience that resonated with users
- Innovative cuff fit and storage
Project Scope
Project Scope
Engineering
Design for Manufacture (DFM)
Prototype & Evaluation
New Product Integration
Portable,
Flexible
& Compact
Portable, Flexible & Compact
Compact Design
and Packaging
Our engineers and industrial designers worked side-by-side to develop a robust, elegant and compact design to package the electronic and pressure system components.
The product takes on a sleek, elementary form, with carefully considered split lines and no physical buttons to power up or pair the device; even the battery cover removal catch is tucked away out of sight, against the nylon cuff, while still being easy to access and operate.
The design deliberately escapes from the typical functional-medical aesthetic, perhaps inviting curiosity with few clues given as to its purpose.
Cuff fit, function &
material selection
Our engineers were challenged with the cuff attachment – the device body could not impede cuff inflation nor be uncomfortable to wear, yet the attachment had to withstand the loads and fatigue of repeated inflation/deflation cycles.
A key contributor to the design’s success is how the cuff wraps around the device when not in use, keeping it protected and compact – contrasted with the messy tangle typical of a standard blood pressure cuff. We ensured that the cuff suited a wide range of arm sizes whilst still wrapping neatly and easily. A magnetic strip embedded in the cuff activates a switch hidden inside the device, effortlessly sending it to sleep when wrapped and then waking it up when it’s time to go.
Connected Healthcare
One-touch pairing between the device and the app means it is ready to use instantly. A user can continue with their daily life as the QardioArm is extremely portable and can run itself without much intervention.
Remote monitoring helps create patient freedom and increased knowledge, which can lead to significant health improvements.
Enjoyed this wearable diagnostics case study?
