DEEP TECH HEALTH + NEUROTECH
Apple has filed patent applications describing wireless earbuds that monitor health while a wearer talks on the phone or listens to music. This has obvious exercise-related implications, but could potentially track the physiological impact of one’s emotional state while making calls, as a mobile mental health tool. Sensors included in the patent include EKG, ICG, […]
Northwestern’s John Rogers has developed a sensor that can monitor electrical activity irregularities in the heart for 70 years. The sensor is much safer and more refined than current technology, which degrades easily, and can harm patients. An array of 396 voltage sensors are set in a very thin, multi-layer, flexible substrate, meant to attach to […]
Declan O’Regan and MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences colleagues believe that AI can predict when pulmonary hypertension patients require more aggressive treatment to prevent death. In a recent study, machine learning software automatically analyzed moving images of a patient’s heart, captured during an MRI. It then used image processing to build a “virtual 3D heart”, […]
Penn State’s John Boehmer used Boston Scientific’s HeartLogic sensors (retrofitted in already implanted devices) to track heart failure in a study of 900 patients. The goal was continuous monitoring and early event detection and prevention. Currently, heart failure is (not very successfully) managed by monitoring weight and reported symptoms. One in five patients are readmitted within 30 […]
Northwestern professor John Rogers has released a paper detailing his latest tiny, wearable, flexible, highly accurate health sensor, which monitors the heart, recognizes speech, and can enable human-machine interfaces. Professor Yonggang Huang is the corresponding author. The soft, continuous monitor adheres to any part of the body, detecting mechanical waves that propagate through tissues and fluids […]
Beyond Verbal recently used its emotion-detecting voice analysis app in an attempt to predict coronary artery disease in 150 study participants, 120 of whom had presented for angiography. The company claims to have identified 13 voice features associated with CAD – and one associated with a 19-fold increase in its likelihood. The researchers said that […]
While visiting Verily last week, an MIT Technology Review journalist saw and described the company’s wearable vital tracker, called the “Cardiac and Activity Monitor” by CTO Brian Otis. Its novelty is a low-power e-paper display, which will address the universal problem of battery life. Only with guaranteed continuous measurement can meaningful data be gathered and health analyzed. The […]
Charles Lieber and Harvard colleagues have designed nanoscale electronic scaffolds, seeded with cardiac cells to produce a “bionic” patch to replace damaged cardiac tissue. The flexible electronics can also electrically stimulate the heart, and change the frequency and direction of signal propagation, as tissue feedback is continuously monitored. Instead of being located on the skin’s […]
iBeat is a wearable emergency response system that continuously monitors the heart. Meant for seniors, it detects cardiac arrest in real time, provides alerts, and sends regular updates to caregivers. If cardiac arrest is detected, the wearer receives a call within 10 seconds. If he/she cannot be reached, an emergency contact and emergency medical services […]
Joe Wang and Patrick Mercier of UCSD have developed a flexible, wearable, patch that monitors both biochemical and electric signals. Most wearables only measure one parameter, such as steps or heart rate, and few measure chemical signals. The Chem-Phys patch records EKG signals, and tracks lactate levels, marking physical effort, in real time. It is worn on […]