US-firm AliveCor taps India telemedicine market with ECG device

NEW DELHI: The government’s push for telemedicine and National Digital Health Mission has provided US-based firm AliveCor a significant opportunity to tap the Indian market for its electrocardiogram (ECG) device, KardiaMobile, which it launched last week, the company’s founder and chief medical officer David Albert told Mint.

“The device is not designed to be a hospital device. It is designed to deliver information. It is much easier to move data than it is to move patients, and it is certainly true for rural populations in India as it is for rural populations in America,” Albert said.

The device is available on the company’s website, as well as Amazon and 1mg, in two variants--KardiaMobile 6L is priced at ₹14,000 and KardiaMobile at ₹8,500.

Albert was optimistic of the device’s commercialisation in India, especially as the covid-19 pandemic has put focus on providing healthcare services remotely, including through telemedicine channels.

“As you know, people now don’t want to go to hospitals. They don’t want to go to clinics. So telemedicine and televisits have become much more important,” he said.

AliveCor had launched these devices in the US in 2012, and since then, has sold nearly 1 million devices across 37 countries, and recorded more than 80 million ECGs till date, the company said in a statement.

The device works by touching the silver electrodes of the device, which records a medical-grade ECG in 30 seconds, Albert said.