Itamar Medical, a company focused on the integration of sleep apnoea management into the cardiac patient care pathway, has agreed to acquire the technology and assets of US-based Spry Health.

Spry’s patented technology is delivered through a watch-like home-based monitoring medical device called the Loop System.

The Loop System is FDA-cleared and based on an extensive set of sensing technologies and algorithms that contextualize real-time, continuous physiologic data to flag signs of patient deterioration using biomarkers such as SpO2, respiration rate, and heart rate.

Gilad Glick, president and CEO of Itamar Medical, said: “As we sought opportunities to build on our vision of expanding sleep apnoea diagnostics from a single-night test to continuous remote patient monitoring, we identified the technology commercialised by Spry Health as a perfect fit.

“The acquisition of their FDA-cleared, wrist-worn technology and the addition of a knowledgeable pool of selected talented engineers, led by Spry co-founder and CTO Elad Ferber, provides an excellent platform for us to jump start our development initiatives to bring to market a continuous sleep apnoea monitoring device.

“While finger-based monitoring yields the highest accuracy, it is currently not suitable for longer-term wear.

“A device that is designed for the wrist, while potentially less accurate for precise disease diagnostics, is more suitable for monitoring the continuous accumulated burden of sleep apnoea and its potential impact on other diseases.”

Itamar anticipates commencing development of a new wrist-worn device immediately, with initial market launch timing anticipated in 2022.