NTT DATA Starts Demonstrations to Extract Remote and Contactless Vital Signs Using Smartphones

Enhancing support for corporate employees’ health management with data extraction functions added to Health Data Bank®

Tokyo – September 11, 2020 – NTT DATA today announced it has begun demonstrations for contactless measurement of vital signs using the technology owned by Binah.ai, the champion of NTT DATA’s Open Innovation Contest 10. The technology determines vital signs by taking a smartphone photo of a human face, which is then transferred to Health Data Bank®. Health Data Bank is a health management service provided by NTT DATA to approximately 2,000 organizations consisting of 4 million employees.

The goal of this demonstration is to realize a new method of healthcare management by remotely extracting vital signs without contact to diagnose health issues in the post COVID-19 world.

The vital signs measured by this technology are oxygen saturation,* respiratory rate, heart rate and stress level, with more measurements planned be made available in the future.

Based on the results of this demonstration, NTT DATA plans to launch this service in October 2020, aiming to provide this technology to 200 organizations with 400,000 employees by the end of FY2022 (March 2023).

Background
With recent changes in working styles, such as the increase in telecommuting, there is a need for changes in the way companies handle employees’ health management in the field of occupational health. Until now, occupational health checks have been at a medical facility.

NTT DATA will undertake a demonstration related to remote and contactless occupational health activities using the contactless vital sign extraction technology of Binah.ai. Through this demonstration, we will address new health issues in congruence with the diversification of working styles in order to realize a new method of health management.

About the demonstration

Overview
In this demonstration, NTT DATA and Binah.ai will create a prototype application and verify the effectiveness of remote occupational health activities in cooperation with companies and occupational physicians.

Available data — Heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and stress level

Data to be extracted — Body temperature, blood pressure, blood alcohol concentration, hemoglobin level

Demonstration of the hypothesis
It is becoming difficult to obtain vital data like blood pressure, which is important in the prevention of lifestyle-related and other diseases, while working in a dispersed, remote environment. We propose that, by linking these vital data points with medical examination data stored in the Health Data Bank, it will be possible to ensure the continued quality of occupational health.

Demonstration procedure

Duration — August 1, 2020 - September 30, 2020 (Scheduled)

Number of people for data extraction* Target value — Approx. 1,000 people

About Health Data Bank
Health Data Bank is a health management service provided by NTT DATA. As of the end of March 2020, the system has been used for health management of about 2,000 organizations and 4 million people. In addition to the functions necessary for occupational health management, it provides functions for risk prediction related to lifestyle diseases and potential leave of absences using AI as well as acting as a health management dashboard that visualizes health conditions for each organization.

About Binah.ai
This demonstration uses the contactless vital sign extraction technology from Binah ai, an Israeli company that won the top award for "The 10th Global Open Innovation Contest presented by From the Port of Toyosu®”.**

This technology enables the measurement of blood oxygen saturation, respiration rate, heart rate, stress value, etc. by analyzing a video of the upper cheek region of a human face with a smartphone, tablet or laptop camera, and in the future, blood pressure and skin temperature, etc. will be made available. These measurement results are important for daily health management and also include important vital signs as indicators to assess the severity of COVID-19.

About the future
After verifying the demonstration results, NTT DATA plans to launch this service in October 2020.

In addition to corporate health management, this function is expected to be utilized for telemedicine at medical institutions and for collaborative services in other industries. At the same time, since the promotion of remote and contactless health management is an international issue. Therefore, we are aiming to rollout these services globally.

NTT DATA will continuously work with various business partners to support people’s healthy lives and create a safe and secure society.

*Blood oxygen saturation: Important vital sign used as an index to assess the severity of COVID-19.

**NTT DATA has been implementing open innovation initiatives to create innovative and sustainable businesses, including the Open Innovation Forum "From the Port of Toyosu®" which has been held since 2013. The 10th Global Open Innovation Contest presented by From the Port of Toyosu was held in 16 cities around the world and the results were announced. 

The Open Innovation Contest is an initiative sponsored by NTT DATA since 2013 to transcend barriers between corporations and countries and to foster business innovation together with the world's leading venture companies.

"Health Data Bank" and "From the Port of Toyosu" are registered trademarks of NTT DATA Corporation in Japan. Other product names, company names, and organization names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.