Origins of Lumia
2019
A Terrible Fall
After a loved one sustained devastating injuries from recurring fainting, Daniel began to learn about Orthostatic Intolerance.
He knew there had to be a way to detect and track the subtle changes that lead up to fainting. He also knew that heart rate monitoring and blood pressure arm cuffs weren't telling the full story of what was happening with his loved one.
Early 2020
Learning It's All About Cerebral Blood Flow
After diving into the literature and learning from the world's top cardiologists, Daniel learned that Cerebral Blood Flow is what truly matters.
Despite the top medical experts knowing this, the broader medical world wasn't measuring it due to a lack of easy-to-use tools.
Amidst an unfolding global pandemic, Daniel and his trusted collaborator Paul began to lay the foundations to change this. With over a million dollars in seed funding to develop a proof of concept, the company Pre Health began: Daniel in his garage, and Paul in his basement.
Late 2020
First Generation: Hat Prototype
TCD (ultrasound through the skull), which can only be done in a special lab, cannot scale to help the millions of people affected by postural drops in blood flow to the head. With over 40 million Americans living with Dysautonomia, there was a need for something affordable, scalable, and wearable in daily life.
The startup team realized shining a light at a shallow ear artery could deliver information on par with, and in some ways superior to, TCD.
They went into deep focus mode for weeks, ultimately emerging with the world's first wearable device capable of tracking drops in blood flow to your head.
The hat prototype was meant to be just a proof of concept, and an easy way to keep a battery and other hardware nearby, but the in-ear portion of the device is very similar to how we know and love it today.
2021
Second Generation & A Ray of Light
After successful human testing on friends and family of the hat prototype in late 2020, the team went back to the work bench and engineered Pre Health's second generation prototype, a high resolution research grade device with a Behind-The-Ear format.
With that device up and running, the team turned their attention to understanding what real people needed in order to make this new type of wearable device useful: an easy to use mobile app.
2022
From Pre to STAT
The pace accelerated in 2022: moving into an office building, growing the team, the first IRB-approved research studies and more.
The second generation BTE model device was now being used in clinical research, testing alongside Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound and Finapres Continuous Blood Pressure monitoring.
Research collaborations with Johns Hopkins and Duke enabled comparisons of the device -- now called STAT -- alongside continuous Cerebral Blood Flow measurement during Tilt Table Testing.
A banner year closed with over $4 million in new funding to urge development even faster.
2023
Third Generation and a Crowdfunding Campaign
Having published their first peer reviewed journal paper in JACC, the team emerged from stealth mode. Second generation BTE units proceeded to home testing, while refinements continued on a rising third generation, with fully featured units proving the feasibility of extreme miniaturization.
In October of 2023 STAT Health launched a crowdfunding campaign, offering 500 Beta customer spots as well as additional Early Birds and Crowdfunding Special customer cohorts.
STAT Health finished 2023 exhausted and happy, having more than quadrupled the team size.
2024
A New Light Dawns
As the team races to ship products to the first cohort of 500 Beta customers, the research efforts also continue.
In June of 2024 the team announced a new transformation powered by light. STAT Health is becoming Lumia Health™, and the world's first device capable of tracking drops in blood flow to your head will be named Lumia™.
In the same month, the company also filed trademarks for its PreciseLight™ technology of using specially shaped lenses to guide the photons emitted by your Lumia™ ear device for improved energy efficiency and signal quality.