David Savastano, Editor02.05.20
Health care is an important opportunity for flexible and hybrid electronics (FHE). For the military, being able to monitor health and performance of soldiers is a key benefit. For consumers, going to the doctor for an annual physical is typically a time-consuming task, culminating in getting blood drawn for a battery of tests. GE and its partners are looking at ways of simplifying all of these tests.
For example, in conjunction with Binghamton University and NextFlex, GE Research has developed a disposable patch that can measure a wide range of health parameters, including sweat and vital signs. The patch would essentially be a Band-Aid sized device. GE sees the first opportunity for these health care patches in the military.
Azar Alizadeh, principal scientist at GE Global Research, said that GE Research brings together experience gained from the military as well as numerous industries, which helps when working on projects like health care sensors.
“At GE Research, we often discover new opportunities through the intersection of technical disciplines at the Lab and line of sight to GE’s industries in aviation, energy and healthcare,” Alizadeh said. “In the case of our wireless wearable human performance and monitoring systems, the initial need and potential benefits of these systems arose from our discussions and collaboration with the Air Force.
“The Air Force was looking for new ways to understand the impact of factors like dehydration on health and performance levels of their special operations training units,” Alizadeh added. “In parallel, we recognized through our Healthcare business the need to improve the monitoring of patients’ vital signs in hospitals and other clinical settings.”
Alizadeh noted that much of present-day monitoring still requires patients to be wired to multiple machines at one time, which is both time-consuming and limiting. A wireless wearable system removes those hurdles; the challenge is creating a wireless wearable system. GE Research has solved many of these obstacles.
“The question became how we could make health care monitoring easier, more accessible and more convenient for the patient,” said Alizadeh. “And so, we have brought together technical experts from across GE’s Lab in wireless and sensing technologies, materials science, microfluidics and design, as well as external collaborators from government, academia and other industries to develop a dynamic wireless sensing platform to measure health and human performance.
“The development of wireless, wearable human performance and monitoring systems has truly been a collaborative effort, involving multiple partners,” Alizadeh added. “They include NextFlex, the US federal government’s innovation hub for flexible electronics; Binghamton University’s Center of Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), which is NextFlex’s New York Node; the Air Force Research Lab, which has supported the development and demonstration of our sweat patch; and New York State’s Empire State Development, which has been a strong supporter of this research as well.”
GE Research is moving forward with its efforts, and adding new capabilities to the wearables is proving to be an important step.
“We have discovered over time the opportunity to build in new measurement and monitoring capabilities to this wireless platform,” Alizadeh added. “We recently highlighted our plans to develop a wearable multi-device sensor patch that measures most of the vitals and other health parameters a doctor would analyze for a patient’s annual physical. The potential applications of this technology in healthcare monitoring and fitness tracking are numerous.”
These patches would have numerous commercial applications, beginning with health care.
“The health and fitness industries are obvious markets. But its application could eventually be much broader to environmental uses as well as health and safety in the workplace, particularly for higher-stress occupations like police, firefighters or other labor-intensive manufacturing environments such as mining. This technology could be well-suited for the increasing level of industrial wearables to ensure workplace safety,” Alizadeh reported.
The use of flexible hybrid electronics is also providing two key benefits.
“First, it’s allowing us to make structures that are extremely flexible vs traditional rigid electronics,” Alizadeh observed. “This allows us to makes devices that are very conformable and comfortable for someone to wear, and which does not interfere with their daily activities. Second, flexible hybrid electronics allow us to make devices at very low cost, which will allow us to manufacture single-use devices that enable us to make this technology available to everyone.”
Alizadeh noted that these patches are already in testing, but there are more developments ahead.
“Early iterations of this platform such as the sweat patch already have been demonstrated in controlled use-cases,” said Alizadeh. “The next steps are to explore more complex, realistic use-case scenarios such as the use of the patch in athletic or military training. This will allow us to gather more customer feedback and engagement in the development process. We also have a technical roadmap to build in new biosensing capabilities to the platform that will happen over the next several years. We view this project as an evolution that will introduce new and better capabilities over time.”
For example, in conjunction with Binghamton University and NextFlex, GE Research has developed a disposable patch that can measure a wide range of health parameters, including sweat and vital signs. The patch would essentially be a Band-Aid sized device. GE sees the first opportunity for these health care patches in the military.
Azar Alizadeh, principal scientist at GE Global Research, said that GE Research brings together experience gained from the military as well as numerous industries, which helps when working on projects like health care sensors.
“At GE Research, we often discover new opportunities through the intersection of technical disciplines at the Lab and line of sight to GE’s industries in aviation, energy and healthcare,” Alizadeh said. “In the case of our wireless wearable human performance and monitoring systems, the initial need and potential benefits of these systems arose from our discussions and collaboration with the Air Force.
“The Air Force was looking for new ways to understand the impact of factors like dehydration on health and performance levels of their special operations training units,” Alizadeh added. “In parallel, we recognized through our Healthcare business the need to improve the monitoring of patients’ vital signs in hospitals and other clinical settings.”
Alizadeh noted that much of present-day monitoring still requires patients to be wired to multiple machines at one time, which is both time-consuming and limiting. A wireless wearable system removes those hurdles; the challenge is creating a wireless wearable system. GE Research has solved many of these obstacles.
“The question became how we could make health care monitoring easier, more accessible and more convenient for the patient,” said Alizadeh. “And so, we have brought together technical experts from across GE’s Lab in wireless and sensing technologies, materials science, microfluidics and design, as well as external collaborators from government, academia and other industries to develop a dynamic wireless sensing platform to measure health and human performance.
“The development of wireless, wearable human performance and monitoring systems has truly been a collaborative effort, involving multiple partners,” Alizadeh added. “They include NextFlex, the US federal government’s innovation hub for flexible electronics; Binghamton University’s Center of Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing (CAMM), which is NextFlex’s New York Node; the Air Force Research Lab, which has supported the development and demonstration of our sweat patch; and New York State’s Empire State Development, which has been a strong supporter of this research as well.”
GE Research is moving forward with its efforts, and adding new capabilities to the wearables is proving to be an important step.
“We have discovered over time the opportunity to build in new measurement and monitoring capabilities to this wireless platform,” Alizadeh added. “We recently highlighted our plans to develop a wearable multi-device sensor patch that measures most of the vitals and other health parameters a doctor would analyze for a patient’s annual physical. The potential applications of this technology in healthcare monitoring and fitness tracking are numerous.”
These patches would have numerous commercial applications, beginning with health care.
“The health and fitness industries are obvious markets. But its application could eventually be much broader to environmental uses as well as health and safety in the workplace, particularly for higher-stress occupations like police, firefighters or other labor-intensive manufacturing environments such as mining. This technology could be well-suited for the increasing level of industrial wearables to ensure workplace safety,” Alizadeh reported.
The use of flexible hybrid electronics is also providing two key benefits.
“First, it’s allowing us to make structures that are extremely flexible vs traditional rigid electronics,” Alizadeh observed. “This allows us to makes devices that are very conformable and comfortable for someone to wear, and which does not interfere with their daily activities. Second, flexible hybrid electronics allow us to make devices at very low cost, which will allow us to manufacture single-use devices that enable us to make this technology available to everyone.”
Alizadeh noted that these patches are already in testing, but there are more developments ahead.
“Early iterations of this platform such as the sweat patch already have been demonstrated in controlled use-cases,” said Alizadeh. “The next steps are to explore more complex, realistic use-case scenarios such as the use of the patch in athletic or military training. This will allow us to gather more customer feedback and engagement in the development process. We also have a technical roadmap to build in new biosensing capabilities to the platform that will happen over the next several years. We view this project as an evolution that will introduce new and better capabilities over time.”