Med-tech firms collaborate on smart health patch

Six medical and technology companies have developed an innovative smart health patch that allows continuous, remote and wireless monitoring of the respiration, heart rate and soon also temperature of patients. The product – initially set up to monitor the vital functions of patients with heart failure and epilepsy – will soon be tested for the use of monitoring coronavirus patients in a Belgian hospital. The partners aim to further roll-out the technology over the next month to respond to a potential new coronavirus surge in autumn.

The ‘COVID-19 smart patch’ has been developed by several partners with strong medical and technology expertise.

The new ‘COVID-19 smart patch’ is the result of a collaboration between the Belgian companies Byteflies, Melexis, Quad Industries, Televic and Z-Plus and the Belgian departments of multinationals Henkel and Nitto. All partners provided expertise and technology components for the 15cm long adhesive patch, which can easily applied to the left side of the chest. It has been developed especially for skin-friendly, medical use and contains high-tech electrodes and conductive inks to register vital signs.

Sends all the data to the cloud wirelessly

A ‘sensor dot’ located in the centre of the patch collects the patient’s vital signs and sends all the data to the cloud wirelessly. A mini temperature sensor will also be integrated soon. The healthcare centre’s nurses and the patient’s general practitioner or specialist can then access this cloud data on a user-friendly platform. Thus, the innovative patch can improve the patient follow-up at home and reduces time and effort for medical stuff in data management. Henkel as a leading global adhesive provider has developed the electrodes and conductive inks. The innovative materials allow the patch to be used for five days rather than just one day.

Henkel has developed the electrodes and the conductive inks for the smart patch.

“The innovative smart patch demonstrates the huge potentials of printed electronics applications and the power of collaborative approaches in the market”, says Stijn Gillissen, global head of printed electronics at Henkel. “At the moment most COVID-19 patients’ vital signs are recorded manually. The staff in hospitals and care homes need to take these vital signs several times a day and then process the data manually. Our system has the potential to save them a lot of time and reduce the amount of times they are exposed to possible infection.”

In addition, the system also offers advantages to patients in home quarantine or in care homes as it enables to take and send measurements automatically. Users can be certain that the measurements are correct and they are being monitored constantly. This means that they can take the appropriate action quickly and they can contact a care provider at a healthcare centre immediately if necessary. The device provides reassurance, particularly to elderly people in retirement homes and their families. The system will also reassure general practitioners and home nurses with regard to their patients and ease some of the monitoring burden.