Digital Health

Where technology elevates healthcare.

Sleep monitoring setup with multiple wearable sensors worn by a participant.

Healthcare systems worldwide face major challenges, including an aging population, workforce shortages, and rising costs. At the same time, emerging trends such as mobile patient monitoring and personalized health, including Femtech, are reshaping the sector.

In response, and with a strong commitment to making preventive, personalized, and cost-effective care accessible to everyone anytime and anywhere, CSEM drives innovation in vital signs sensing technologies, advanced algorithms, and secure connected systems, enabling next-generation wearables, medical devices, and Digital Health solutions.

Through our innovations and continuously evolving expertise in Digital Health, we are uniquely positioned to support companies—from dynamic start-ups to global industry leaders—in transforming their monitoring ideas in healthcare, wellness, and sports into successful, market-ready products.

We offer a broad range of support services to accelerate your innovation journey, including IP licensing, ISO 13485/IEC 62304-compliant co-development and medical system engineering, PPG expert support, custom algorithm development, and clinical research trial support.

Research and development in Digital Health

In Digital Health, we maintain ongoing R&D efforts in the following areas.

Photoplethysmography and optical sensing

Building on long-standing expertise in photoplethysmography (PPG), CSEM develops high-performance optical sensing solutions. By leveraging optical PPG data, CSEM’s advanced vital signs algorithms extract a wide range of physiological parameters, including blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia detection, oxygen saturation (SpO2), sleep metrics, heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, and stress levels. 

In addition, CSEM leads pioneering research in remote PPG, speckle photoplethysmography, and laser Doppler flowmetry, advancing the frontiers of non-invasive cardiovascular and perfusion monitoring.

  

Biopotential and bioimpedance monitoring

CSEM develops advanced biopotential and bioimpedance monitoring technologies for Digital Health and medical applications. Our expertise covers a wide range of sensing modalities—including ECG, EEG, EMG, EoG, EHG, fECG, ECGi, as well as electrical impedance tomography (EIT), thoracic impedance monitoring, impedance cardiography, and impedance plethysmography.

CSEM’s expertise encompasses both traditional biopotential and bioimpedance systems, as well as innovative solutions based on its patented cooperative sensor (CS) technology. Leveraging ultra-low power, custom ASICs, this scalable CS-platform enables high-quality signal acquisition via up to 250 active dry or gel electrodes connected through a single unshielded cable of maximum 2 wires—ideal for multi-channel monitoring and imaging wearables in clinical environments, Digital Health, and research.

Current R&D activities address pregnancy monitoring and non-invasive assessment of pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) based on a combination of EIT and ECG. They also explore multifrequency EIT for continuous, non-invasive monitoring of blood glucose or other analytes.
  

Emerging sensing technologies

CSEM is actively exploring emerging sensing technologies to drive tomorrow's wearable vital signs monitoring solutions. These R&D activities include compact ultrasound sensors combined with tailored reconstruction and processing algorithms, digital stethoscopes with enhanced sensing and interpretation capabilities, as well as innovative skin and core body temperature sensing approaches.

Gait and motion analysis

CSEM develops technologies and algorithms for analyzing and tracking motion across multiple body locations, including the wrist, foot, thorax, and head. Our algorithm portfolio covers activity classification, gait analysis, fall detection, workout profiling, sleep monitoring, and motion and gesture recognition.

Our step detector has been independently verified as best-in-class for accuracy. All solutions are designed for real-time operation with minimal power and memory requirements, making them ideal for embedded Digital Health and fitness applications. 
   

Data Science and AI in healthcare

CSEM offers a clinically validated portfolio of vital signs algorithms, many of which are medical-grade and available for licensing. Beyond ready-to-use solutions, we develop custom vital signs algorithms by combining classic signal processing with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to meet specific application needs in healthcare—for both on-edge devices and cloud-based environments. 
   

Gen AI and LLMs in Digital Health

We also explore the integration of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) into Digital Health ecosystems. We develop agentic frameworks that combine classical databases with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) techniques to provide timely, context-aware information to clinicians and patients. These approaches aim to enhance clinical decision support, streamline workflows, and personalize patient engagement through intelligent, adaptive interfaces. 
   

Internet of Medical Things and Custom Mobile Apps

Our evolving expertise in advanced sensing technologies for wearable vital signs monitoring is complemented by a robust, evolving Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) framework and custom mobile applications, enabling secure, real-time remote patient monitoring across clinical and home environments. 

Photo of a man using a tablet. The picture contains several medical icons.

Ready to accelerate your medical device and wearable innovation?

Partner with our experts to transform your ideas into certified medical devices, advanced wearables, and connected health solutions. Contact our Digital Health experts to discuss your project.

Tailored services in Digital Health

We provide a comprehensive range of support services designed to accelerate your innovation journey and transform your ideas into successful, market-ready products. Our Digital Health services include:

  • Licensing of Digital Health sensing and algorithm IP: We give you access to our portfolios of sensing technologies and vital signs algorithms for medical devices and wearables.
  • ISO 13485/IEC 62304-compliant co-development and medical system engineering: CSEM offers end-to-end support for medical device and system development under its ISO 13485-certified quality management system and IEC 62304-compliant processes for medical software. We integrate hardware, firmware, and algorithms with rigorous risk management and regulatory alignment.
  • PPG services: CSEM offers expert support in photoplethysmography (PPG), from concept to implementation. Our PPG services include sensor architecture design, optical path optimization, signal conditioning, and algorithm integration—tailored to your application needs.
  • Custom algorithms development: We support you in developing your vital signs algorithms, be it by using classical signal processing, with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) —for both on-edge devices and cloud-based environments.
  • Clinical research trial support: With decades of experience in clinical research and validation studies—particularly with vital sign monitoring devices that generate large volumes of continuous data—CSEM offers comprehensive end-to-end support for your clinical trials. Our expertise covers every stage, from study design to data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation, ensuring reliable outcomes. To support your studies, we provide access to our proven wearable demonstrator platforms and our secure IoMT platform (see below).
  • Loan of wearable demonstrator platforms: CSEM offers a portfolio of wearable demonstrator platforms that showcase our advanced sensing and algorithmic capabilities across a wide range of applications—from cardiac and respiratory monitoring to maternal and fetal health. The platforms enable evaluation, integration, and clinical research.
  • Secure IoMT platform: Our secure internet of medical things (IoMT) platform, built on a robust cloud infrastructure and advanced digital stack, delivers seamless data management, real-time monitoring, and full compliance with data privacy and regulatory standards—providing a trusted backbone for connected healthcare solutions. This platform enables secure remote monitoring and efficient data handling and can, for example, be deployed in clinical studies, as successfully demonstrated in the Swiss Fever Project.

Clinically driven Digital Health R&D

Located at the Campus of Bern University Hospital (Inselspital) and embedded in the Bern Medtech Ecosystem, CSEM collaborates closely with clinicians and researchers to drive innovation at the intersection of microtechnology, electronics, and clinical applications. Through the Bern Medtech Collaboration Call (BMCC), clinical teams and CSEM engineers jointly identify clinical needs, co-design Digital Health solutions, and validate them under real clinical conditions.

This strong partnership with Bern University Hospital—alongside close collaborations with other renowned institutions such as Lausanne University Hospital—enables CSEM to anticipate emerging trends and develop technologies that address patient needs while delivering clinically relevant outcomes.

Meet our happy customers

Hilo Logo

Mattia Bertschi

COO

Aktiia aims at reducing the burden of hypertension with just a sleek bracelet, the fruit of more than 15 years of research and development done at CSEM. Their multidisciplinary team, scientific approach, and passion for innovation have been invaluable throughout the creation of our breakthough solution for cuffless blood pressure monitoring.

Ametris logo (formerly ActiGraph)

Jeremy Wyatt

CEO

Our partnership with CSEM exemplifies the power of collaboration, creativity, and shared dedication to patient-centric innovation. By leveraging CSEM’s expertise in photoplethysmography (PPG), we have developed a state-of-the-art wearable device with the potential to transform clinical research and help patients live longer, better lives.

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Professor Patrick Schoettker

Chief Medical Advisor

CSEM has experience working with the watchmaking industry and is a world-leading expert in oscillator systems. That’s where you go when you’re seeking technologies that break the mold.

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Philipp Vetter

CEO & Founder

Our collaboration with CSEM has opened new doors in healthcare innovation. Their cutting-edge optical monitoring technology (oCMT), advanced algorithms, and deep expertise have enabled us to create a groundbreaking all-in-one health monitoring solution. Together, we’re setting new standards in continuous patient care, delivering exceptional accuracy and reliability, and ultimately saving lives.

rheo AG

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George Kouvas

CTO

CSEM’s know-how in the field of medicalgrade wearable devices and experience in sensor technologies have helped us realize the desired capabilities for EPIOS. We are very much looking forward to trialing the system and helping improve quality of life for people living with neuro-disorders.

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Marco Pisano

CEO

Lymphatica’s first artificial lymphatic vessel for the treatment of lymphedema is composed of an implanted micropump, controlled externally via a wearable device. Working with CSEM allowed us to develop and produce the first series of wearable controllers to be used in a firstin- man clinical investigation in lymphedema patients.

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Cléo Moulin

Clinical Innovation Manager

Thanks to CSEM’s expertise in wearable sensors, signal processing, and medical devices we will accelerate the launch of a disruptive device blending advanced 3D sensor technology with clinically validated algorithms. This will transform the management of patients with severe motor impairments and reduce healthcare costs.

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Ilkka Korhonen

CTO

We worked with CSEM to develop a prototype next generation wearable heart rate tracker. Combined, their technical excellence, deep understanding of a companies needs, agile research approach and focus on outcomes was both impressive and unique.

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Waqas A. Malik

CEO

Inspiring® exemplifies the power of collaboration. CSEM’s reputation for excellence and commitment to precision have been instrumental in helping us redefine wearable health monitoring.

Euron Venture Group