AsianScientist (Mar. 31, 2014) – Scientists have overcome the limitations of existing technologies to develop a multifunctional wearable healthcare device that can perform monitoring, diagnostic and therapeutic tasks.
Health-monitoring devices that continuously probe physiological activity are needed to understand and treat chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. However, numerous engineering challenges face the would-be manufacturers of wearable medical devices including miniaturization, waterproofing and flexibility to stretch and bend along with skin.
Kim Dae-Hyeong and colleagues at the Institute of Basic Science and Seoul National University in South Korea have created a wearable device that addresses these challenges by integrating stretchable sensors, memory and actuators all made of nanomaterials. Their results were published in Nature Nanotechnology.
The team used silicon nanomembranes in the motion sensors, gold nanoparticles in the non-volatile memory and silica nanoparticles loaded with drugs in a thermal actuator. All these components were integrated on a patch capable of resisting stretch and bend forces, and thus suitable to be worn on the skin.
Kim and colleagues demonstrated that the wearable system could measure and record muscle activity, which is an important parameter to diagnose movement disorders. The recorded data then triggered the release of the therapeutic agents contained in the silica nanoparticles by means of the thermal actuator, allowing the drug diffuse into the skin. A temperature sensor made of silicon nanomembranes was used to monitor the skin temperature during delivery to prevent burns.
“It is the breakthrough in mobile healthcare,” said Kim. “This system will be especially helpful for the continuous monitoring of Parkinson’s disease patients, thereby improving diagnosis and therapy. In conjunction with other smart devices, remote diagnosis and therapy will be possible.”
The research team is working towards the development of completely wireless devices which can be seamlessly integrated into existing mobile networks.
The article can be found at: Son et al. (2014) Multifunctional wearable devices for diagnosis and therapy of movement disorders.
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Source: Nature Publishing Group.
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