Manufacturing of Disposable Wearable Vital Signs Monitoring Devices

Wireless wearable devices can continuously assess and communicate patient condition and are crucial components of the emerging digital, mobile health monitoring ecosystem. We envision that widespread adoption of disposable wireless devices can radically transform caregiving in clinical settings, making practices such as spot-checking of vital signs obsolete, while enabling early detection of deterioration. Furthermore, earlier patient discharge may become possible through earlier and safer patient mobilization enabled by wireless monitoring. The last five years have seen the emergence of numerous vital sign patches, which exhibit superior performance compared to predecessor wearable devices; as many include multi-parameter sensing capabilities, artificial intelligence platforms for analysis, and hold CE or 510K-FDA clearances. However, the rate of adoption of wearable monitoring in clinical settings still remains low due to several factors, including ambiguity of overall value proposition, sub-standard device performance, and/or prevalence of false alarms for clinical decision making and cost. In this talk, we will discuss our progress towards development of low-power, wearable, wireless multi-parameter devices and advanced analytics capable of monitoring heart rate, respiration rate, blood oxygenation, continuous changes in blood pressure, and skin temperature for ambulatory patient monitoring and decision making. We will discuss low-cost flexible hybrid electronics manufacturing approaches, including novel sensor designs, device layouts, miniaturization and assembly, and advanced algorithms to render clinically relevant signals and continuous monitoring opportunities for up to one week. Collaborators: Binghamton University, DuPont, and GM Nameplate. Funding Sources: NBMC, NextFlex, AFRL, and Empire State Development-Binghamton.