Monday, January 16, 2017

MedicoApps team impressing pilots across the world!

FlySentinel is a prestigious wristwatch for pilots and simultaneously the first monitoring system in the world that measures their psychophysical state and different parameters in the environment during the flight. The smart device identifies potential risks and informs the pilot, advises them what to do to solve the problem, and in case of an accident, it can also send a distress call and communicate the GPS location. It’s developed and marketed by the team of the ambitious Slovenian startup MedicoApps, led by the computer expert and sport pilot Primož Grajžl. The innovative startup company, which received Slovene Enterprise Fund’s SK75 investment, is currently in the midst of two key milestones, as they are concluding the stage of collecting pre-orders where they impressed nearly 100 pilots across the world – besides Slovenian ones also professional and sport pilots from the US, Hungary and countries of former Yugoslavia. At the same time, the Business Angels of Slovenia club is assisting them in their final talks with corporate strategic investors that will help the company with further development and sales. At last year's PODIM Conference they were actively looking for an investor and were participants at networking activities of 1:1 Arena.

Which problems does FlySentinel solve?

In the past few years, the development of technologies in aviation, especially in navigation and control flight systems, has progressed a lot, but very little (practically nothing at all) was done in the field of systems for monitoring the psychophysical state of the pilot in the plane. With an increased number of sport and airline pilots, there is also an increased number of older pilots with chronic diseases that can lead to sudden health problems during the flight, such as heart attack, problems breathing and similar. Additionally, sudden health problems can also occur in younger and completely healthy pilots on longer flights at great heights.

From pilots for pilots

Two members of the Aeroclub Celje, both pilots and experts in the fields of computer science and medicine, detected a business opportunity in the lack of a system for continued monitoring of the pilot’s vital functions that would give early warning of the pilot’s health problems and significantly contribute to the safety of the pilot. They founded the company MedicoApps and launched the development of the prestigious wristwatch FlySentinel for monitoring the psychophysical state of the pilot. At the same time, they tested medical algorithms that communicate critical status conditions. In the next step, they invited the Jožef Stefan institute and drew up exact specifications of the device with their experts.

Excellent product needs excellent design

“We’ve known from the beginning that we need excellent appearance for an excellent product. This is why the well-recognized Slovenian designer Jure Miklavc joined us as the company cofounder. The company LXNAV with their long years of experience in electronics and software development is also standing by our side in development,” is how Primož Grajžl described the background of the FlySentinel production.

Optimal data collection and possibility of later processing and analysis

The parameters that FlySentinel monitors on the pilot are heartrate, body temperature and oxygen saturation in the blood, while at the same time it is also measuring the environment temperature, noise, humidity, CO, G-forces and GPS coordinates. The housing is very resilient and made from precious light metals. The pilot carries FlySentinel on their wrist and uses it as a smart watch in its passive work mode. They used tactile buttons instead of the widespread touch monitors, because buttons can also be used without looking at the device and during jerky movements. The user interface is also easy to read under all conditions and has a clear and simple structure with fewest possible elements. After the flight, the pilot can also save all data into a cloud for later processing and analysis.

Enthusiastic response from pilots from Slovenia, USA, Hungary and former Yugoslavia

At the beginning of this year, team FlySentinel started collecting pre-orders for the first 100 pieces of the FlySentinel’s first version, which pilots will be able to use this spring. “We really didn’t expect such an enthusiastic response from pilots! We knew we have an incredible product, but we didn’t dare imagine that we will obtain almost all 100 planned pre-orders from the whole world in the first couple of days. We’re especially proud that Peter Podlunšek, who is amongst the best acrobatic pilots in the world, is supporting us as one of our first users,” commented Primož Grajžl on the successful start of marketing. In the next step, the company will address big airlines, their main target markets are German, France, Great Britain and the US, and then China, which recently relaxed its legislation regarding the possession of planes by physical persons.

Development of the solution for firefighters, soldiers and the elderly

For the end of 2017, team of the MedicoApps company is planning to offer FlySentinel to firefighters, soldiers and the elderly. “For this step, additional development and adapting the shape will be needed, but because we know that development should never stop if you want to ensure competitiveness, we already have new ideas for improving our device and making flying even safer. We’ll continue development in the direction of measuring blood pressure on the wrist and non-invasive measuring of the blood sugar level. This is where an investment of a corporate strategic investor will be of incredible help, supporting further development and sales of our solutions,” is the optimistic prediction from Primož Grajžl.

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More information and additional materials about the company:
Primož Grajžl, CEO and co-founder of MedicoApps
[email protected], +386 41 763 791