A pair of high school students are developing a piece of potentially life-saving technology.
The HeartWatch “is a 24/7 heart monitoring and analysis system,” according to HelpWear CEO André Bertram.
It analyzes the electrical activity and pulse of the user’s heart. When it determines that the user is going to have a heart attack or is otherwise in distress, it contacts EMS.
He is the talker of the pair, which makes sense considering he intends to go into either engineering or business in university.
His partner Frank Nguyen created the watch. He intends to go into electrical engineering in university.
He created the watch out of concern for his mother, who had recently developed heart problems. Frank became worried about his mother when he had to leave the house to go to school, according to Bertram.
He partnered up with Bertram at the Base Camp program at Ryerson University.
It is a program where entrepreneurial high school students can get seed funding for their product, and mentorship to try to turn it into a business.
“Through the Ryerson Base Camp program, we made a connection with Dr. Linda Maxwell, who is the head of the Biomedical Zone, and that’s where we are now,” said Bertram.
They are currently developing the HealthWatch through the Biomedical Zone.
The Biomedical Zone is a partnership between Ryerson University and St. Michael’s Hospital. Through that, HelpWear — what the two 17-year-olds have named their company — will work with a team of cardiologists to develop the product into something saleable.
They currently have just a proof of concept prototype devised from their key components. Bertram says the device will still require some development before it can go to market.