Forums » Off duty » Journal club » Wireless Epidermal Electronic Device in Physiology and Medicine
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Wireless Epidermal Electronic Device in Physiology and Medicine
posted at 13/2/2012 7:00 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1464
First: 24/12/2008 Last: 6/5/2012 |
I think bio-engineering and development of new generation technology in medicine and research would give us what the future is going to be like (or at least the direction we are heading towards). This time I have picked up one such publication which promises a lot (looking at this paper). The team from Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and their collaborators report that they have developed not even a skin deep technology that enables us to measure different physiological parameters. They have utilized non-invasive method as they mention van der Waals bonding to attach a flexible polymer to the skin. They mention this polymer is biofriendly, can overcome skin texture and hair to get attached, and has very thin functional components encased inside!!! The science behind this technology are already in use e.g. light-emitting-diodes (LED) in Pulse oximeter. They have videos of this technology (skin attachment) embedded in the article and have even tried to be creative by making it similar to different models of tattoos (i.e adhesive tattoo). Some of the physiological parameters they forsee to measure with it are : ECG, EEG, EMG. I am sure it can expand beyond this. We will have to be cautious about how accurate the information will be from this technology. One may have to apply correction factors to those physiological signals. The point about signal-to-noise ratio will be a genuine concern as per the movement, impact over the device/patch, distance from device to recorder (if there is that system) and so on. This will be particularly important if we are to use this technology for patients and monitor over the period of time (e.g in Sleep, ECG monitoring etc). Non-invasiveness is great but we will have to ask about its cost and affordibility of our system in the present context. I hope it will not be terribly expensive. Despite these cautious points, it will be one of the most important and upcoming research technology in physiology and medicine. It will not be a big surprise if they can make to bedside after few years. Abstract: ============================= ABSTRACTWe report classes of electronic systems that achieve thicknesses, effective elastic moduli, bending stiffnesses, and areal mass densities matched to the epidermis. Unlike traditional wafer-based technologies, laminating such devices onto the skin leads to conformal contact and adequate adhesion based on van der Waals interactions alone, in a manner that is mechanically invisible to the user. We describe systems incorporating electrophysiological, temperature, and strain sensors, as well as transistors, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, radio frequency inductors, capacitors, oscillators, and rectifying diodes. Solar cells and wireless coils provide options for power supply. We used this type of technology to measure electrical activity produced by the heart, brain, and skeletal muscles and show that the resulting data contain sufficient information for an unusual type of computer game controller. =============================
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Re: Wireless Epidermal Electronic Device in Physiology and Medicine
posted at 16/2/2012 4:42 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1464
First: 24/12/2008 Last: 6/5/2012 |
It seems that the scientific community is very excited the fear about the cost and accuracy of information are pretty much upto the standard. The cost especially seems coming down with all these electronic advancement. Another article is here with ehtusiasm in this field by a team from University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine "The Promise of mHealth Daily Activity Monitoring and Outcome Assessments by Wearable Sensors". ================================ AbstractMobile health tools that enable clinicians and researchers to monitor the type, quantity, and quality of everyday activities of patients and trial participants have long been needed to improve daily care, design more clinically meaningful randomized trials of interventions, and establish cost-effective, evidence-based practices. Inexpensive, unobtrusive wireless sensors, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and pressure-sensitive textiles, combined with Internet-based communications and machine-learning algorithms trained to recognize upper- and lower-extremity movements, have begun to fulfill this need. Continuous data from ankle triaxial accelerometers, for example, can be transmitted from the home and community via WiFi or a smartphone to a remote data analysis server. Reports can include the walking speed and duration of every bout of ambulation, spatiotemporal symmetries between the legs, and the type, duration, and energy used during exercise. For daily care, this readily accessible flow of real-world information allows clinicians to monitor the amount and quality of exercise for risk factor management and compliance in the practice of skills. Feedback may motivate better self-management as well as serve home-based rehabilitation efforts. Monitoring patients with chronic diseases and after hospitalization or the start of new medications for a decline in daily activity may help detect medical complications before rehospitalization becomes necessary. For clinical trials, repeated laboratory-quality assessments of key activities in the community, rather than by clinic testing, self-report, and ordinal scales, may reduce the cost and burden of travel, improve recruitment and retention, and capture more reliable, valid, and responsive ratio-scaled outcome measures that are not mere surrogates for changes in daily impairment, disability, and functioning. ================================ |
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Re: Wireless Epidermal Electronic Device in Physiology and Medicine
posted at 22/2/2012 3:57 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1464
First: 24/12/2008 Last: 6/5/2012 |
Few lines from the news: =================== NATURE | NEWSWireless drug implant takes the trouble out of treatmentMicrochip releases doses automatically, removing need for injections. 16 February 2012 An implant that can be wirelessly programmed to release drugs inside the body has been successfully tested in humans. Researchers say that the device could save patients from the painful ritual of daily injections. In trials on seven Danish women with osteoporosis, the implant delivered daily doses of the drug teriparatide, which stimulates bone formation. Researchers showed that over the course of one month, the implant was able to deliver up to 20 doses with the same levels of safety and therapeutic benefits as regular injections. The results are published today in Science Translational Medicine1. =================== |
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