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The Leisure Media Company Ltd | Fit Tech promotion
The Leisure Media Company Ltd | Fit Tech promotion
features

Fit Tech people: Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive

We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting

Published in Fit Tech 2023 issue 1

What is DSruptive?
A deep-tech design agency specialising in implantable microelectronics.

With offices in Sweden and Spain, the company and the founders have significant experience in the human implant industry, with particular expertise in technology, business, service design and medical aspects of subdermal implants.

Our mission is to enable safe, cheap and easy integration of smart technology and the human body.

Tell us about the company’s journey
The founders of DSruptive connected over a joint interest in chip implants in 2015 and have been pursuing projects in the space ever since. Inspired by the simplicity and versatility of the tech, but increasingly frustrated by the lack of health applications, they decided to incorporate a startup in early 2019.

Since then the company has achieved several key milestones, including the launch of two new products, a seed capital raise of €400,000 and the organisation of the first-ever clinical study of temperature-logging chip implants.

How do smart implants work?
DSruptive’s implants are tiny, sensor-equipped glass capsules that are injected under the skin of the user. The procedure is quick and fairly painless.

The implants are passive devices, in that they don’t have batteries. Instead, they’re activated via the NFC antenna of a smartphone. This means they can’t emit or receive information unless they’re activated with a specific phone that’s paired with the implant. This gives them a very long lifetime – DSruptive’s implants are made to last for decades.

They’re easy to remove, should a user wish to do so, since they sit just under the skin.

How can smart implants be used in health and fitness?
There are many potential uses of implants for health and fitness. In general, they measure body temperature, pulse or blood oxygenation in the same way as wearables, for example.

The key differences are that since an implant doesn’t have a battery it requires an action from the user to swipe it and do a reading. On the other hand, implants can’t be lost, stolen or broken, they don’t need to be charged, and they’re always there when you need them, no matter what the context – be it ultramarathon running, cross country skiing or hiking far away from civilisation.

The only product DSruptive currently has on the market is the temperature sensor implant. Additional devices are currently being developed and we expect to release more sophisticated solutions going forward.


In the UK, we’re collaborating with Impli Ltd, which is focused on female fertility applications.

Are you undertaking research on further health and fitness applications?
Yes, we’re R&D driven and the majority of our team works with tech and products. At the same time, we’re a small company with limited resources, and can only pursue a few of the many opportunities we see. So we’re constantly looking for opportunities to collaborate with researchers who are interested in implants.

Earlier this year, we organised a clinical study in cooperation with researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. This demonstrated the viability of measuring body temperature with subdermal chip implants and found that implantation of the devices is safe and induces little discomfort for the users.

What potential do you see for the use of implants in future?
Areas in which implants can provide value to users include fertility tracking, remote monitoring, and early diagnosis and prevention of disease and illness. In addition, it’s easy to imagine that implants can be used at a population scale by health care administrators to detect, monitor and contain pandemic outbreaks that may occur.

In the longer term, we think of implants as a new organ for humans – an inner digital eye. We expect that they will become personalised healthcare devices and improve circumstances for humankind in many different ways.

How do you manage ethics?
We’re aware that implants may be controversial to some people. This is why we must have high ethical standards in everything we do. We take the utmost care that our technology is always applied with the best interests of the end-users in mind – their health, wellbeing and data protection are uncompromisable.

We only take on projects and partners that adhere to our values of health, safety, respect for human rights and operational excellence.

At the heart of it, we must make sure our technology is applied in ways that humanise and empower our users, not dehumanise them in any way.

What’s the big picture?
What we do must be seen in the context of the tech-driven transformation our world is undergoing.

In a world of billions of connected devices and enormous data flows, our implants are just a tiny part. We want to give our users a tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting.

Personal data logging is transforming healthcare and is the enabler of remote monitoring and fascinating preventative health applications.

More: www.dsruptive.com

DSruptive co-founder Patric Lanhed

DSruptive co-founder Juanjo Tara

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
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features

Fit Tech people: Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive

We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting

Published in Fit Tech 2023 issue 1

What is DSruptive?
A deep-tech design agency specialising in implantable microelectronics.

With offices in Sweden and Spain, the company and the founders have significant experience in the human implant industry, with particular expertise in technology, business, service design and medical aspects of subdermal implants.

Our mission is to enable safe, cheap and easy integration of smart technology and the human body.

Tell us about the company’s journey
The founders of DSruptive connected over a joint interest in chip implants in 2015 and have been pursuing projects in the space ever since. Inspired by the simplicity and versatility of the tech, but increasingly frustrated by the lack of health applications, they decided to incorporate a startup in early 2019.

Since then the company has achieved several key milestones, including the launch of two new products, a seed capital raise of €400,000 and the organisation of the first-ever clinical study of temperature-logging chip implants.

How do smart implants work?
DSruptive’s implants are tiny, sensor-equipped glass capsules that are injected under the skin of the user. The procedure is quick and fairly painless.

The implants are passive devices, in that they don’t have batteries. Instead, they’re activated via the NFC antenna of a smartphone. This means they can’t emit or receive information unless they’re activated with a specific phone that’s paired with the implant. This gives them a very long lifetime – DSruptive’s implants are made to last for decades.

They’re easy to remove, should a user wish to do so, since they sit just under the skin.

How can smart implants be used in health and fitness?
There are many potential uses of implants for health and fitness. In general, they measure body temperature, pulse or blood oxygenation in the same way as wearables, for example.

The key differences are that since an implant doesn’t have a battery it requires an action from the user to swipe it and do a reading. On the other hand, implants can’t be lost, stolen or broken, they don’t need to be charged, and they’re always there when you need them, no matter what the context – be it ultramarathon running, cross country skiing or hiking far away from civilisation.

The only product DSruptive currently has on the market is the temperature sensor implant. Additional devices are currently being developed and we expect to release more sophisticated solutions going forward.


In the UK, we’re collaborating with Impli Ltd, which is focused on female fertility applications.

Are you undertaking research on further health and fitness applications?
Yes, we’re R&D driven and the majority of our team works with tech and products. At the same time, we’re a small company with limited resources, and can only pursue a few of the many opportunities we see. So we’re constantly looking for opportunities to collaborate with researchers who are interested in implants.

Earlier this year, we organised a clinical study in cooperation with researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. This demonstrated the viability of measuring body temperature with subdermal chip implants and found that implantation of the devices is safe and induces little discomfort for the users.

What potential do you see for the use of implants in future?
Areas in which implants can provide value to users include fertility tracking, remote monitoring, and early diagnosis and prevention of disease and illness. In addition, it’s easy to imagine that implants can be used at a population scale by health care administrators to detect, monitor and contain pandemic outbreaks that may occur.

In the longer term, we think of implants as a new organ for humans – an inner digital eye. We expect that they will become personalised healthcare devices and improve circumstances for humankind in many different ways.

How do you manage ethics?
We’re aware that implants may be controversial to some people. This is why we must have high ethical standards in everything we do. We take the utmost care that our technology is always applied with the best interests of the end-users in mind – their health, wellbeing and data protection are uncompromisable.

We only take on projects and partners that adhere to our values of health, safety, respect for human rights and operational excellence.

At the heart of it, we must make sure our technology is applied in ways that humanise and empower our users, not dehumanise them in any way.

What’s the big picture?
What we do must be seen in the context of the tech-driven transformation our world is undergoing.

In a world of billions of connected devices and enormous data flows, our implants are just a tiny part. We want to give our users a tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting.

Personal data logging is transforming healthcare and is the enabler of remote monitoring and fascinating preventative health applications.

More: www.dsruptive.com

DSruptive co-founder Patric Lanhed

DSruptive co-founder Juanjo Tara

Sign up here to get Fit Tech's weekly ezine and every issue of Fit Tech magazine free on digital.
Gallery
More features
Editor's letter

Into the fitaverse

Fitness is already among the top three markets in the metaverse, with new technology and partnerships driving real growth and consumer engagement that looks likely to spill over into health clubs, gyms and studios
Fit Tech people

Ali Jawad

Paralympic powerlifter and founder, Accessercise
Users can easily identify which facilities in the UK are accessible to the disabled community
Fit Tech people

Hannes Sjöblad

MD, DSruptive
We want to give our users an implantable tool that allows them to collect their health data at any time and in any setting
Fit Tech people

Jamie Buck

Co-founder, Active in Time
We created a solution called AiT Voice, which turns digital data into a spoken audio timetable that connects to phone systems
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Fahad Alhagbani: reinventing fitness

The team is young and ambitious, and the awareness of technology is very high. We share trends and out-of-the-box ideas almost every day
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Bold move

Our results showed a greater than 60 per cent reduction in falls for individuals who actively participated in Bold’s programme
App analysis

Check your form

Sency’s motion analysis technology is allowing users to check their technique as they exercise. Co-founder and CEO Gal Rotman explains how
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My vision was to create a platform that could improve the sport for lifters at all levels and attract more people, similar to how Strava, Peloton and Zwift have in other sports
Ageing

Reverse Ageing

Many apps help people track their health, but Humanity founders Peter Ward and Michael Geer have put the focus on ageing, to help users to see the direct repercussions of their habits. They talk to Steph Eaves
App analysis

Going hybrid

Workout Anytime created its app in partnership with Virtuagym. Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer and Virtuagym’s Hugo Braam explain the process behind its creation
Research

Physical activity monitors boost activity levels

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have conducted a meta analysis of all relevant research and found that the body of evidence shows an impact
Editor's letter

Two-way coaching

Content providers have been hugely active in the fit tech market since the start of the pandemic. We expect the industry to move on from delivering these services on a ‘broadcast-only’ basis as two-way coaching becomes the new USP
Fit Tech People

Laurent Petit

Co-founder, Active Giving
The future of sports and fitness are dependent on the climate. Our goal is to positively influence the future of our planet by instilling a global vision of wellbeing and a sense of collective action
Fit Tech People

Adam Zeitsiff

CEO, Intelivideo
We don’t just create the technology and bail – we support our clients’ ongoing hybridisation efforts
Fit Tech People

Anantharaman Pattabiraman

CEO and co-founder, Auro
When you’re undertaking fitness activities, unless you’re on a stationary bike, in most cases it’s not safe or necessary to be tied to a screen, especially a small screen
Fit Tech People

Mike Hansen

Managing partner, Endorphinz
We noticed a big gap in the market – customers needed better insights but also recommendations on what to do, whether that be customer acquisition, content creation, marketing and more
More features