It’s official: The river of wearables and wellness-trackers has run all the way up to highest nook or cranny of your ear.
The new company STAT Health announced a device Tuesday that sits in your ear, above the canal, that measures blood flow to your head. Through metrics shared to an app, it may provide insight for people who feel faint on a regular basis, including those with long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), chronic fatigue and others suffering from a form of dysautonomia, a disruption of the autonomic nervous system.
It may also help manage associated feelings or symptoms, like brain fog or headaches, by allowing them a peek into how blood flow to the head changes when they sit, stand or walk around.
The wearable, called the STAT, is designed to be worn 24/7, and because it sits above the ear canal, shouldn’t interfere with headphones or ear buds. While it’s not officially on the market yet, and is not a medical or diagnostic device, it may be a useful tool for the millions of people managing symptoms of a disregulated autonomic nervous system, some cardiovascular issues and more.
“Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is the critical missing vital sign — poor CBF is the cause of common orthostatic symptoms such as dizziness and brain fog,” Dr. Peter Rowe, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who specializes in chronic fatigue and similar disorders, said in STAT’s press release. The STAT earpiece was clinically tested at Johns Hopkins.
“However, it’s not easy to measure CBF, so most clinics approximate using secondary metrics of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure, which often mislead,” Rowe said.