The product was originally conceived by its developer Dr. Alexander Riftine for the needs of the Navy. Specifically, the product was to meet the need for objective testing of the general health and special fitness conditions of the Navy pilots, underwater divers, navy seals and other marine personnel.
Between 1981 and 1982 the first trial version of the product was developed based on the Time Domain and Auto-regression Function approach. By 1982 it became clear that the Time Domain approach was fundamentally flawed as it didn’t reflect the internal structure of the heart rhythm. It was also revealed that the probability of erroneous assessments was no less than 30%, which was unacceptable.
In 1982 a new trial version was developed based on the Frequency Domain approach.
In 1982 a massive data collection effort was started, and by the summer of 1986 12000 samples of Orthostatic test data and 700 samples of Stress test data were collected and analyzed. One of the results of this analysis was a proprietary Classification of the Transitional Periods during Orthostatic test, developed in 1986.
To provide a meaningful and systematic interpretation for his entire collection of data, Dr. Riftine started searching for a fundamentally new methodology that would be more comprehensive and precise in measuring the individual’s current physical/physiological state as well as health resource and genetic ability.
In the first part of 1987, Dr. Riftine formulated a novel theory for the quantitative assessment of the individual’s functional state utilizing HRV methodology. This theory was based on Dr. Riftine’s original ideas in the field of Bio-medical Cybernetics and Normal Physiology. The practical applications of the theory – specifically, its proprietary algorithms for the quantitative assessment of the individual’s functional state – were developed on the basis of Marvin Minsky’s Frame Theory.
The first product based on Dr. Riftine’s new theory, Health-Express, was developed by 1988. It provided assessment of the level of Physical Fitness. The marketing campaign for Health-Express was launched in 1988.
In 1992 a new product, Nerve-Express, was launched. Nerve-Express is the first product to provide the automatic quantitative assessment of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Prior to Nerve-Express, the problem was in reducing all possible variations of multiple parameters (20-30), generated by FFT or any alternative type of mathematical analysis of RR intervals, to a quantitative relationship between only two parameters: SNS and PSNS.
Nerve-Express is the first and only system to solve this problem of SNS-PSNS quantification. This technological breakthrough is achieved by the application of Dr. Riftine’s proprietary algorithms.
The original and all subsequent releases of Nerve-Express include Health-Express.
From 1997 to 2001 a validation study of Nerve-Express was conducted by J. Thomas Bigger, Jr., M.D., Head of Research Holter Laboratory, at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
In May of 2001 the European registration (CE mark) for Nerve-Express was granted and in August of 2001 Nerve-Express was launched on the European market.
In 1998 a “real-time” (up to 48 hours) Autonomic assessment was added to Nerve-Express. In 2003another test was added – the Valsalva maneuver combined with Deep Breathing.