Empatica and McRoberts partnership achieves 200+ endpoints and opens platform to external algorithm developers

We are delighted to announce that we have partnered with McRoberts, one of the leaders in ambulatory monitoring of physical activity, to host all 71 McRoberts endpoints in Empatica’s digital biomarkers portfolio and FDA-cleared platform, bringing our total offering to over 200.

The additional digital biomarkers will enhance the Empatica Health Monitoring Platform with new measures in categories including activity monitoring, energy expenditure, and sleep movements, and introduce key Functional Mobility Assessments such as the sit-to-stand test, gait test, timed up & go test, sway test, and stair test, which play a crucial role in assessing physical function and mobility in clinical care and research settings.

In a press statement, our CEO and Co-Founder Matteo Lai explained the value of this development to sponsors and the field of digital health overall:

“This partnership shows a maturing digital health industry. Established players are joining forces to provide a one-stop solution to sponsors across the world. You can get the best medical technology and validated measures with a long clinical history in the same place: this means less setup time, costs and patient burden.”

McRoberts CEO, Martijn Niessen, also highlighted how this will benefit the customers of both entities:

"Combining our mobility analytics with their versatile platform and extensive array of physiological and behavioral biomarkers promises immense benefits for both our customers.”

The partnership cements the Empatica Health Monitoring Platform’s ability to be fully compatible with validated third-party algorithms. It is also the first known instance where an already established provider moves from using their proprietary wearable to a different device platform, allowing them to focus more energies on developing new endpoints. This showcases the confidence placed in Empatica’s technology, particularly in the monitoring capabilities of the EmbracePlus wearable. It also paves the path to additional partnerships, making it a true platform for other digital biomarker developers to have algorithms implemented in large-scale initiatives without needing to worry about the development of dedicated hardware and compatible software.

Empatica’s FDA-cleared EmbracePlus wearable has a modular design with multiple sensors and form factors for data collection, so it can monitor vital signs and activity from various locations on the body such as the wrist, hip, waist, and lower back for up to 14 days. The versatility and accuracy of EmbracePlus make it perfectly compatible with the data required to compute the McRoberts algorithms. Users will thus be able to use the Empatica Health Monitoring Platform and get the same output as they would get using McRoberts’ MoveTest and MoveMonitor, without having to switch between devices and software.

The McRoberts algorithms are available to all Enterprise plan users of the Empatica Health Monitoring Platform. Talk to our team to find out more, or reach out directly at research@empatica.com.