On July 25-26 the WT | Wearable Technologies Conference will be back in San Francisco. Many highlights will be awaiting you. Among them New York based company Celesstia Health. Their CEO Peter Mankowski will be on stage on July 26. Read our interview with Jessica Roberts – the “Geek girl” who started it all.
What’s the story behind Celesstia? Where is the idea coming from?
In late 2014, one of our co-founders lost his mother to Metastatic breast cancer. Driven by the grief of the loss of his mother and the desire to improve on diagnosis, accuracy & time, Louri got in touch with some of his former Blackberry co-workers. Together, this new team of scientists well versed in human and animal medical applications, and individuals from many other female-driven industries developed Celesstia. The mission? Give women a way to keep tabs on their own health and be alerted to any changes that could be cancerous.
How will the wearable component of Celesstia look like?
When thinking about the design for the Celesstia product we initially wanted to create a ‘Smart Bra’. When we started looking deeper into how many different types of bras are on the market, it became clear that we would never be able product line vast enough to suit each individual women’s preference. Thus, we created a solution designed to work comfortably underneath women’s existing bras. The Celesstia wearable consists of 2 thin silicone inserts that come in a variety of sizes (A-DD) and available in clear or nude to be worn discreetly and super comfortably with all electronics embedded in the silicone.
How can Celesstia help in the therapy and treatment of breast cancer?
One in eight women will get breast cancer, and approximately 40,000 women a year die from it in the U.S. — but up to tens of thousands of others will have false positives or be treated unnecessarily for lower-risk cancers. For women with dense breasts, mammograms not only expose the patient to radiation but are also fairly inaccurate at distinguishing between normal white cells and white cancerous cells.
In order to overcome some of these shortfalls of modern technology, we have created Celesstia to become a habit-forming product among at risk or recovering women. We wanted to give women a solution to make them familiar with their bodies in a way that is as simple and routine as putting on your socks in the morning. Celesstia, uses AI to learn regular biometric patterns in the patient’s body and sends an alert if there is any unusual activity detected. Meaning that using Celesstia doesn’t expose the patient’s body to any radiation, or painful tests.
What is your favorite Wearable product at the moment besides your own?
The Muse headband. Muse first grabbed our attention in 2015, when we first discovered them doing something that seemed very out of the ordinary. Instead of simply tracking what is happening in your body, communicate with your body and essentially change your stress and thought process. Celesstia, is a similar concept, but instead allows your body to communicate with you and give you alerts about changes that could be cancerous.
