The European Union has awarded more than $4.8 million to the Smartshops consortium to develop an implantable medical device for continuous blood pressure monitoring.

The consortium — which includes eight partner institutions in Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic — has already developed a sensor for continuous pressure measurement, but needs to address challenges related to biocompatibility, longevity, and delivery to the target tissue.

Currently, “there is no clinically accepted method of continuous beat-to-beat blood pressure monitoring that patients can use outside of the hospital setting,” said William Wijns, a professor at the University of Galway and the leader of the consortium.

High-risk patients who require long-term monitoring to tailor drug treatments must go to a for this care and would be “better off in their own homes rather than in a hospital setting,” he said.