Background on Firstbeat — Transformative Insights

Firstbeat is a Finnish organisation, established in 2002 as a spin-off from the Research Institute for Olympic Sports and University of Jyväskylä.

Their technology is extensively used across the globe by wellness professionals, over 22,000 professional athletes and more than a 1,000 sports teams.

Firstbeat is also used for health and performance improvement by large organisations such as BMW, SAP, KPMG, Canon, EY, Unilever and Heineken.

The Firstbeat measurement device, appropriately called the Bodyguard, is a validated ECG recording device reliable for long term HRV measurements. It also detects some potentially life-threatening but as yet undetected underlying health issues (e.g. heart rhythm disturbances, sleep dysfunction) and as such facilitates preventative referrals and early treatment.

Firstbeat uses heart rate variability (HRV) in combination with heart rate and movement data and overlays this with daily events and routines to map your physiological functioning throughout a 72-hour (or longer) period. This Firstbeat resource takes a deeper dive into how Firstbeat analyses stress from heart rate variability.

For more information visit the Firstbeat website.