Huami teams up with Alivecor on next generation medical-grade wearables

Huami and Alivecor have announced they are teaming up on the next generation of medical-grade wearable devices. The deal will cover both AliveCor technology and services.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

The news comes just a few short months after AliveCor announced it is killing off its Apple Watch ECG accessory KardiaBand. The California-based private medical health company discontinued its flagship product due to the built-in ECG functionality of the Series 3 and 4 watches.

Unlike its earlier product range which have a single lead ECG, Alivecor is now focusing on wearables with more precise 6-lead systems. Presumably, some of this technology will make it into the next generation of Huami’s devices.

“AliveCor’s agreement with Huami achieves our corporate goal of delivering AliveCor’s AI driven subscription services and solutions to enterprise customers and consumers worldwide at affordable price points,” said AliveCor CEO Priya Abani.

“AliveCor technology allows partners to easily deliver clinically validated, peer-reviewed medical features to their own customers, at scale.”

Huami is a Chinese-based wearable-tech giant. In addition to being the manufacturer of the wildly popular Xiaomi Mi-Band, it has its own range of fitness trackers and smartwatches under the Amazfit moniker. Just in 2018, the outfit shipped some 27.5 million wearable devices worldwide. The collaboration with Huami should enable Alivecor to bring its products and subscription services to a larger numbers of users as well as the large Asian market.

“AliveCor’s Intelligent, medical grade, heart care platform will be a key component of Huami smart watches and heart trackers going forward,” said Wang Huang, CEO of Huami.

“Our new partnership is critical to building these as well as entirely new medical grade services.”

Huami is no stranger to ECG technology. The Amazfit Verge 2, announced over the summer, comes in a ECG variant. We have yet to see this made available to the public, but it is coming in the next few months.

Today’s deal includes the licensing of AliveCor technology to Huami and an agreement to work together on new hardware and subscriptions services. The first ECG-enabled wearables to emerge from the alliance are expected in 2020.

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