Xiaofeng Tech Enters Portable ECG Monitor Market with Proprietary Chip and Algorithm to Establish Hardware-Driven Competitive Edge

There are 290 million patients with cardiovascular disease in China, with nearly 3.5 million deaths annually, accounting for 41% of the total number of disease-related deaths in the country. However, studies have shown that 72% of cardiovascular disease patients experience significant discomfort before cardiac arrest, and the warning symptoms for the vast majority of patients last longer than 15 minutes. Real-time electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring can effectively reduce the severe consequences caused by cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, thereby lowering disability and mortality rates.

The ECG monitoring sector has emerged as a highly competitive market in recent years, with technology and internet companies such as Apple and Huami, alongside traditional manufacturers, striving to capture this space. However, the adoption of portable ECG monitors among patients remains limited, indicating that the market’s full potential has yet to be realized.

Against the backdrop of an accelerating national aging process, the rapid progression of various chronic diseases, and continuous advancements in modern medical technology, China’s 13th Five-Year Plan proposed the strategic development goal of “Healthy China 2020.” This initiative signifies that industries related to home-based digital healthcare, mobile health, and medical devices are facing significant opportunities for growth. According to the report “Transformation of China’s Digital Healthcare Market” published by Boston Consulting Group, expenditure on digital healthcare services in China is projected to grow from the tens of billions to the trillions of yuan over the next decade or so.

Changzhou Xiaofeng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Health Aware Tech”) has identified this vast market opportunity and aims to promote portable ECG monitoring products to ordinary households, safeguarding the heart health of the general population, reducing the disability and mortality rates associated with cardiovascular diseases, and improving public awareness of these conditions.

Xiaofeng Technology is a technology-driven enterprise specializing in smart wearables and the neurotechnology sector, integrating research and development, manufacturing, and sales. Headquartered in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, the company boasts a young, highly professional, and skilled team of R&D and production technicians, along with advanced scientific research facilities and production testing capabilities, providing robust technical support for continuous product innovation and upgrades.

Unlike the dual-electrode signal acquisition solutions available on the market, Xiaofeng Tech has innovatively designed an anti-interference three-electrode signal acquisition system, which enhances the sensitivity of feature signal collection and enables easy acquisition of stable P-wave signals at the fingertip.

The frequency components of body-surface electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are primarily concentrated in the 0.05–100 Hz range, with amplitudes significantly lower than the 1–2 mV typically observed at the chest level. These signals constitute low-frequency, weak bipolar waveforms that are often obscured by various stronger interferences and noise sources, such as electromyographic (EMG) signals, respiratory waveforms, 50 Hz power-line interference, and electrode-skin interface noise. In particular, the subtle atrial P-wave is difficult to acquire stably and clearly.

(Provided by the company)

Traditional portable ECG devices typically employ a dual-electrode signal acquisition system using metal electrodes such as “brass with gold-plated copper” or “stainless steel,” which are prone to significant noise interference, making it difficult to capture characteristic signals and resulting in low acquisition accuracy. To address these technical limitations, Health Aware Tech has innovatively designed a three-electrode signal acquisition system. By incorporating an anti-interference electrode and selecting specially coated electrode pads, the system enables easy and stable acquisition of characteristic signals, such as atrial P-waves, from the fingertips.

(Images provided by the company)

Tan Weizhong, General Manager of Health Aware Tech, stated, “Our portable ECG device enables the monitoring of complete ECG signals via dry electrodes at the fingertip. The dynamic ECG waveform is clearly and stably displayed in real time on our mobile app. It is the only product on the market capable of stably detecting the P-wave through dry electrodes at the fingertip.”

(Image provided by the company)

According to Tan Weizhong, institutions in China currently engaged in mobile healthcare fields such as cardiac and cerebral electrical monitoring rely predominantly on imported chips, mainly from Texas Instruments (TI) and Analog Devices (ADI). The direct use of imported chips creates significant technical barriers to the transformation and upgrading of domestic medical devices.

“More importantly, these two types of chips are generally only suitable for signal acquisition near the heart and on the chest, failing to meet market demands in terms of user experience and accuracy, which has hindered their promotion in China. After evaluation, the measurement accuracy of Health Aware Tech’s products far exceeds that of traditional manufacturers.”

Xiaofeng Technology has achieved a 99% accuracy rate for its ECG monitor, supported by its self-developed chips that provide robust hardware infrastructure and its proprietary deep learning-based filtering and denoising algorithms. Statistical data indicate that the ECG monitor achieves an 85% accuracy rate in real-world applications. This decline in accuracy is attributed to factors such as ambient environment and patient movement during self-measurement. When users select an appropriate setting and adhere to standardized operating procedures, the detected ECG waveforms are essentially consistent with single-lead ECG data obtained in hospital settings.

Health Aware Tech's ECG monitor not only features low-cost chips but also boasts superior algorithms.

Health Aware Tech’s deep learning algorithms were developed by the company’s overseas Chinese team. The team optimized signals acquired from dry electrodes and expanded the applicability of the algorithms. Tan Weizhong stated, “Currently, the accuracy of ECG algorithms on the market in diagnosing arrhythmias is typically validated using records from ECG databases. While many algorithms demonstrate high accuracy under such conditions, it is difficult to maintain this level of accuracy in real-world applications. This reflects insufficient adaptability of the algorithms themselves.”

Health Aware Tech’s algorithm library is divided into two components: one deployed locally on the user’s smartphone and the other hosted in the cloud. The on-device algorithm library handles preliminary screening, while the cloud-based algorithm performs intelligent analysis. This intelligent analysis encompasses all of the user’s test data, rather than focusing solely on individual tests. As a result, the accuracy of the intelligent analysis improves with increased usage, reducing misjudgments caused by improper user operation. Furthermore, the intelligent analysis can reflect changes in the user’s ECG data over long-term use, as well as assess the degree of cardiac aging.

Tan Weizhong stated, “Our ECG monitor can screen for 15 types of arrhythmias. Before New Year’s Day 2020, we will launch the first phase of early screening services for myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease. Our ECG monitor holds significant practical value in monitoring physiological parameters, providing disease warnings, and facilitating subsequent assessment and diagnosis for chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.”

The team responsible for developing the chips and algorithms has accumulated extensive experience in product development and industrialization management. The leading PhD candidate foresaw the broad market potential of portable smart monitoring devices and assembled a team of software and hardware experts to jointly develop a series of products for physiological parameter detection, with the aim of providing home-use diagnostic equipment for patients suffering from chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Xiaofeng Tech’s chip R&D team has been dedicated to the design and research of biomedical chips for many years, with extensive practical experience in developing low-noise, low-offset, low-power, high-performance application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) modules for biomedical signal acquisition.

Health Aware Tech’s ECG monitor offers the advantages of intelligence, high accuracy, and ease of use, overcoming the limitations of traditional large-scale EG/EEG devices that cannot support real-time, professional self-testing. Weighing only 35 grams and measuring 80mm x 35mm x 5.5mm, the device is highly portable. “Users can take it out and use it anytime they feel unwell, breaking through the temporal and spatial constraints of traditional cardiac health monitoring.”

The product is also extremely simple to operate; users need only lightly touch the electrode pads with their fingertips for 60 seconds to obtain a dynamic electrocardiogram (ECG) for that period via the mobile app, making it particularly convenient for elderly users. “This product does not replace professional medical diagnosis or prescription by physicians. As an important medical auxiliary tool, it focuses not only on accurately detecting trends in patients’ condition changes but also on providing guidance and recommendations for healthy living. We aim to help users monitor their physical status and disease trends at any time, while fostering healthy daily routines, thereby achieving scientific and effective management and guidance of their conditions.”

Regarding product promotion, Health Aware Tech plans to collaborate with platforms and institutions for joint marketing efforts, later focusing on breakthroughs in hospitals and adding value-added services. Currently, Health Aware Tech has reached strategic cooperation agreements with several major institutions. It will subsequently establish and improve online and offline sales channels, while leveraging the influence of key accounts to enhance the company’s and its products’ brand awareness. Tan Weizhong stated, “We plan to enter third-party sales platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, and are considering establishing partnerships with well-known mobile health platforms like AliHealth and Ping An Good Doctor.”

Tan Weizhong also expressed his hope that Health Aware Tech would collaborate with industry peers to deliver more professional and accurate product solutions and algorithms to customers.

In addition to ECG monitoring products, Xiaofeng Technology has developed two additional products based on its chips: a Sleep Health Management System and an Attention Training Tool. The Sleep Health Management System is primarily designed for elderly individuals living alone, nursing homes, and wellness centers, aiming to monitor sleep quality and detect sleep-related conditions such as atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea syndrome.

Another product is an attention training tool, jointly developed by Xiaofeng Technology and Teacher Rui’s Attention Studio. Designed primarily for children aged 3 to 16, the product aims to enhance their attention span and support their learning and development.

Tan Weizhong concluded by stating, “The company is currently preparing for a new round of financing, with a target amount of RMB 10 million, to be primarily used for product research and development, production, and team expansion.”