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# Lifelight becomes world’s first smartphone app to replace blood pressure cuffs with medical-grade accuracy
- URL: https://med-techinsights.com/lifelight-becomes-world-first-smartphone-app-to-replace-blood-pressure-cuffs/
- Published: 2025-06-25T14:53:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T08:31:10.000Z
- Description: Digital health company Lifelight has achieved a global first, receiving Class II medical-grade certification for its smartphone app that measures blood pressure using only a phone camera. This breakthrough replaces the need for physical cuffs, clinical appointments, and additional hardware, marking
- Author: Oliver Johnson
- Tags: Digital Health & AI, News

Digital health company [**Lifelight**](https://lifelight.ai/?ref=med-techinsights.com) has achieved a global first, receiving Class II medical-grade certification for its smartphone app that measures blood pressure using only a phone camera. 

This breakthrough replaces the need for physical cuffs, clinical appointments, and additional hardware, marking a pivotal shift in how cardiovascular health is monitored at scale. The Lifelight app aims to dramatically ease pressure on already stretched NHS services including GP surgeries, instead allowing accurate readings to be taken by patients at home.

At the core of its breakthrough technology is remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), a method traditionally used in finger pulse oximeters. By using the smartphone camera to detect microscopic colour changes – ‘micro-blushes’ – in the face caused by blood flow, Lifelight translates these facial waveforms into pulse rate, systolic and diastolic readings – the top and bottom numbers in a blood pressure measurement, showing the pressure when the heart beats and rests.

While the rPPG concept isn’t new, Lifelight’s clinically validated engineering is. Powered by the company’s unique proprietary clinical rPPG blood pressure dataset – over 25,000 paired gold standard BP and video recordings – Lifelight employs proprietary AI to deliver medically robust measurements with proven accuracy. Lifelight holds six patents related to these models, trained on a diverse dataset of 12,500 patients.

80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable, and with 15% of Europeans living with undiagnosed hypertension, early detection can be a matter of life and death. Lifelight enables mass screening with zero cost to the user, and is already used by over 100,000 people across the UK and Europe. It’s embedded in NHS pilots including Hampshire and Isle of Wight IBC, iPlato’s MyGP app available across the NHS, insurers, digital health platforms, and virtual ward providers for chronic disease management and cardiovascular screening.

“This is a moment as significant as the smartphone camera was for photography. For the first time, we’ve put GP-level blood pressure monitoring into the smartphone in your pocket,” said Laurence Pearce, CEO of Lifelight. “By harnessing everyday devices, we’re making clinical-grade cardiovascular screening available to everyone, everywhere, without the cost, complexity, or waiting times of traditional care.”

“Crucially, it also means fewer unnecessary appointments, freeing up valuable GP and nurse time for patients who really need it. As Wes Streeting looks to scale the NHS’ preventative care capabilities, this innovation is essential for broadening access to cardiovascular health screening to millions more people – early, easily, and at no extra cost,” adds Pearce.

Lifelight is compatible with almost all smartphones up to 10 years old, instantly enabling access for approximately 80% of users globally, without the need for wearables, home cuffs, or technical knowledge. It’s especially valuable for individuals with obesity, mobility challenges, or those unable to use traditional cuffs.

The technology aligns directly with NHS priorities around preventative care and cardiovascular health- particularly as the UK prepares for the upcoming national cardiovascular screening tender announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.