Israeli scientists have developed an integrated system of wearable monitors that passively detect and transmit vital signs as early markers for disease. Such wearables aren’t unique, but this system is unprecedented because it’s powered by energy from the wearer’s movements and body heat, and can fix its own tears or scratches. .
The wearable system could spare patients pain, greatly reduce medical expenses, and provide extensive and detailed information for epidemiological studies, say Prof. Hossam Haick and postdoctoral researcher Weiwei Wu, who invented the system at the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. .
“Normal health is characterized by known markers such as 60 to 100 heartbeats per minute and seven to eight breaths per minute. If we detect dramatic changes in the various markers in real time, we can refer the patient to a more comprehensive diagnosis and prevent disease from developing or worsening,” said Haick. .
Haick and Wu presented their results in the journal Advanced Materials.
Haick has invented nanotech medical diagnostic systems including the NaNose for detecting cancer and other diseases from breath samples with 86% accuracy on average. He heads the SNIFFPHONE consortium, which integrates this system into a cellphone to enable uploading the data to the cloud for medical analysis.
Courtesy Israel21c