28-04-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
HKTDC helps PanopticAI take its AI-powered health monitoring app onto global stage
Few prosperous businesses ever get started without the support of experts. The Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is one such expert, which has helped numerous start-ups achieve success since it was established in 1966.
Advertisement
One of the trade promotion body's missions is to provide Hong Kong companies with advisory services, resources, connections and promotional tools so that they can not only flourish but also expand their reach beyond the city's shores.
Its Start-up Express programme is one example of how it provides business support. Each year, the scheme, which was launched in 2018, selects 10 of the city's promising innovative technology companies and helps them to improve their capabilities, identify and explore opportunities, find business and funding partners, and increase their brand awareness.
PanopticAI, a start-up working in health technology – one of the main focuses of the programme – is one of the successful businesses that have benefited from its support.
A built-in camera on a smartphone, tablet or computer helps PanopticAI's Vitals app measure a person's heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, oxygen saturation and stress level.
The company, founded in 2020, has developed its Vitals app, an AI-powered health and wellness monitoring solution, which uses the built-in camera of a smartphone, tablet or computer to measure a person's heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, oxygen saturation and stress level. Its app is able to capture these readings by analysing subtle differences in a person's natural skin colour caused by changes in their blood flow.
Advertisement
The idea for the app was conceived during the Covid-19 pandemic, which sparked a growing demand for new methods of remote patient monitoring. Today the technology is continuing to help healthcare providers reduce the workload of their staff through the effective management of chronic diseases and the early detection of illnesses.
