#45 - Measuring oxygen with a smart earring - Shavini Fernando - OxiWear

Do you have to come close to death to invent a groundbreaking medical device?

That's certainly not something we would wish upon every medtech entrepreneur.

But it is the story of Shavini Fernando and the connected medical earring OxiWear that she developed.

Shavini lives with Eisenmenger syndrome, a condition where the two ventricles of her heart communicate.

This condition dramatically increases the pressure in her pulmonary vasculature and severely limits the oxygen carried in her blood.

It's a critical situation that has already caused her four cardiac arrests and three strokes, all of which she has survived.

Constantly reliant on supplemental oxygen to live, she dreamed of a way to measure her oxygen levels in real time while staying active.

This would allow her to anticipate sudden variations in the future and the life-threatening risks they bring.

And she made that dream come true by creating the first connected earring, FDA-certified, capable of measuring blood oxygen saturation in real time.

All in a discreet format, lighter than an AirPod, and designed for use during everyday activities, including sports.

In many ways, this innovation has transformed her own life, as well as those of hundreds of patients who have benefited from it so far.

In this episode, we revisit her story as a patient and survivor.

Shavini opens up about the immense challenges of living with Eisenmenger syndrome and developing OxiWear, sharing her vision for this technology and the potential it holds for the future of cardiorespiratory monitoring.

A touching and sincere conversation with a truly exceptional figure in the healthtech ecosystem!

Timeline:

• 00:00:00 - Shavini's story as a pulmonary hypertension patient surviving four cardiac arrests and three strokes
• 00:19:13 - Building the first smart earring to continuously measure oxygen levels while staying active
• 00:25:20 - The design behind OxiWear and the challenges to bring it to life
• 00:31:24 - The blessing of COVID to access funding and educate the general public about cardiorespiratory health
• 00:36:57 - Making OxiWear the ultimate cardiorespiratory device for remote patient monitoring
• 00:39:47 - The business model behind OxiWear from a medical and consumer perspective
• 00:43:10 - Overcoming the torture of creating a medical device from scratch

What we also talked about with Shavini:

• MedTech World
• Georgetown University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Leonsis Family Entrepreneurship Prize "Bark Tank" created by Ted Leonsis
• MassMEDIC
• Renal cholesteatoma
• Sickle cell anemia
• Photoplethysmography.aspx)

As we mentioned during the episode, you can watch here the recording of the panel I hosted alongside Shavini at MedTech World in 2024.

As Shavini shared in the episode, you can learn more about OxiWear at Oxiwear.com.

Although we did not explicitly talk about it, I also recommend you watch Shavini's TEDx Talk recorded in 2019.

You can follow OxiWear's activities on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, TikTok, and get in touch with Shavini via LinkedIn too!

This conversation is part of Impulse's exploration of how medicine, science, and technology are transforming patient care.

If you want to give me feedback on the episode or suggest potential guests, contact me over LinkedIn or via email!

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