A new smartwatch has launched with a very unique feature: the BP Doctor Pro Smartwatch from YHE Techs can monitor your blood pressure using a patented inflatable cuff design.
Between them, today's best smartwatches and best fitness trackers can do an awful lot of things, but until now measuring blood pressure hasn't typically been amongst them. Following in the footsteps of the Omron HeartGuide, the BP Doctor Pro smartwatch aims to change that, by creating a cuff that automatically inflates on your wrist when you want to measure your blood pressure. When not inflated, it looks like your average sleek and compact fitness tracker, and it's lightweight too (60g).
The design enables you to check your own blood pressure whenever and wherever you like. It'll also collate your data to let you keep an eye on your heart health over a period of time, as well as packing a range of supplementary health-tracking features.
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Why is this useful? Unless it's very severe, hypertension doesn't have any symptoms, which means a lot of the people who have don't realise (in fact, YHE Techs says that of the 1.1 billion or so people worldwide who are thought to be suffering from it, but over one-third are unaware). In order to check your blood pressure, you'd usually need to go to a doctor for a checkup, or invest in a traditional upper-arm oscillometric device, which can be tricky to manage on your own. The BP Doctor Pro offers a practical solution.
There's a potential catch. Usually, a wrist-based monitor will only be used if it's not possible to use the upper arm. In order for the reading to be accurate, the your arm and wrist must be at heart level – so you'll need to hold your arm as shown in the image above – and according to Mayo Clinic, even if you do hold your arm correctly, "blood pressure measurements taken at the wrist are usually higher and less accurate than those taken at your upper arm... because the wrist arteries are narrower and not as deep under your skin as those of the upper arm." So that's something to perhaps be aware of if you decide to buy one of these.
In terms of other features, the BP Doctor Pro also includes functions to measure HRV (Heart Rate Variability) – potentially an indicator of things like coronary heart disease, hypertension, and even heart failure – analyse sleep conditions and track fitness status including blood oxygen saturation. And it'll do boring but helpful things too, like help you keep on top of your daily requirements via the ability to set reminders, alarms and push notifications.
The wearable began life as an Indiegogo campaign, launched by YHE Techs in 2020. It raised over half a million dollars with more than 2025 backers. The BP Doctor Pro smartwatch is available to buy now at yhetechs.com, with an with an RRP of $399/AU$537.
