Some fitness bands and smartwatches can monitor your heartbeat, but sometimes you need to know more about how your circulatory system is operating. Your heart rate alone may not tell the whole story.
MOCAheart is a new device created by MOCACARE, a company based in Palo Alto, California. The sleek metal object is about a quarter of an inch thick, and to get a reading, you hold it with both hands for 25 seconds. It then reports on your heart rate, your blood oxygen level, and a qualitative report on your blood flow. It communicates this data to an iOS or Android device via a Bluetooth connection, where an app processes and stores the information. It also comes up with a rating of 1 to 5 for your overall “MOCA INDEX” that lets you know whether your readings are within a desired range, or are in need of attention. If used an average of three times a day, the device is expected to last for three days between charges.
As the company pointed out in the product announcement, the MOCAheart is not intended to make medical recommendations or to be used for medical diagnosis or treatment decisions. Instead, it’s meant to give consumers a way to track their heart health. As a result, the product does not need FDA clearance, though the company does intend to pursue FDA clearance in the future by undertaking studies that will demonstrate suitability of the product’s data for clinical applications.
