Although it may take a couple more years for a wholesome transformation, the metamorphosis of the Healthcare Industry has begun with the advent of IoT. The Internet of Things in healthcare is slowly being applied for chronic disease management, enabling assisted living and improving preventive care. This IoT revolution in patients, providers and payer process and analytics system is sure to leave the industry profoundly different. Actively taking part in this revolution is Bangalore headquartered CloseConnexions who builds healthcare solutions by deploying health monitoring sensors that track vitals like heart rate, ECG and EDA (electrodermal activity). “CloseConnexions isn’t a device company. We provide end-to-end productized services which include wearable/portable devices, an IoT platform for capturing the data regularly and an analytics engine for deep diving on patient’s data and presenting it to doctors/caregivers using mobile apps,” says Sajid Husain, Co-Founder & CEO.

Delving deep into IoT, CloseConnexions has developed DemCare, a smartwatch for Dementia patients that help track their location including geo-fencing in real-time, monitor their basic health vitals and connects to caregivers/doctors during emergencies. Fitted with a GSM SIM, the smartwatch can be used for detecting accidental falls, making or receiving phone calls and receive/send text messages. Having deployed a standard cognitive assessment tool that is made available through DemCare mobile app, CloseConnexions is proud to serve a major hospital in Bangalore that helps patients suffering from Alzheimers. The tool enables the caregiver to assess the patient’s condition periodically. “Through cognitive assessment and tracking ADL (Activity of Daily Living) score on a periodic basis, CloseConnexions has developed an algorithm to detect any deterioration in patient’s condition,” says Sriram Venkata Subramanyan, Co-Founder & CTO. The smartwatch also provides reminders for medicine and water, which is useful for
Dementia patients.
CloseConnexions has also developed SafeSteps, a smart walking Stick for senior citizens and for those with gait difficulty. It’s equipped with location tracking, fall detection and a SOS button
for emergency.

Making Affordable Healthcare a Reality
Similarly, the company is working on CCX Post Operative Care, a solution that can monitor the heart condition of an individual continuously. The solution keeps track of important vitals like heart rate variability (HRV) using interbeat interval (IBI) and blood volume pulse (BVP), temperature and EDA in real-time for 36 hours in a single charge. Intending to make healthcare more accessible in rural locations, the company has developed a portable medical kit that is capable of capturing multiple health vitals. Hospitals that provide community healthcare can implement this solution to amass health vitals of individuals from remote villages, wherein the data is immediately shared with doctors to initiate immediate follow-ups.

Closely following technologies like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and patchables (thin devices that can be patched on the skin to capture health info and remove it when no longer required), the company plans on providing their device agnostic IoT Platform to other partners as a SaaS platform. CloseConnexions aims to bring affordable healthcare products to people with lower incomes who can’t afford hefty hospital bills.