A Newfoundland and Labrador health tech company working on a monitoring solution for congestive heart failure patients will receive support from the province to help get its product to market. Government announced an investment of more than $500,000 in JVPLabs for research and development of its JVPClinic medical device.

JVPLabs is focused on developing innovative non-invasive technology to enhance the assessment of congestive heart failure patients by measuring jugular venous pressure height both in hospitals and remotely at home. The JVPClinic device captures images of the neck and uses powerful algorithms and artificial intelligence to extract subtle motion signatures created from the large blood vessels lying deep under the skin that provide details regarding heart function. This information will enable doctors to adjust medications before the patient develops severe symptoms such as shortness of breath with the goal of reducing hospital over-crowding and keeping patients feeling well in the comfort of their home.

Congestive heart failure is one of the most common and costly diseases in the world today. This condition has reached epidemic levels and continues to expand rapidly. There are over 25 million heart failure patients in the world, with approximately 750,000 Canadians living with congestive heart failure and another 100,000 diagnosed annually according to the Canadian Cardiovascular Society.

The provincial government’s contribution to this project will support costs associated with developing and fabricating the JVPClinic devices, research and development, third-party testing, and development of artificial intelligence for the technology.

The company has undertaken several R&D projects with the department, all of which were successfully completed. The series of development projects led to earlier prototypes of the JVPClinic device and used in clinical trials at Eastern Health in partnership with the Health Innovation Team.