Stick-on patch proposed for patient monitoring

One day, monitoring a patient’s vital signs, such as temperature and heart rate, could be as simple as sticking on a tiny, wireless patch—sort of like a temporary tattoo. Eliminating the bulky wiring and electrodes used in current monitors would make the devices more comfortable for patients, says an international team of researchers, who report their findings in Friday’s edition of the journal Science. “What we are trying to do here is to really reshape and redefine electronics … to look a lot more like the human body, in this case the surface layers of the skin,” says John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois. “The goal is really to blur the distinction between electronics and biological tissue.” The researchers embedded electronic sensors in a film thinner than the diameter of a human hair, which was placed on a polyester backing like those used for the temporary tattoos popular with children. The result was a sensor that was flexible enough to move with the skin and would adhere without additional adhesives. The researchers say the devices had remained in place for up to 24 hours. Rogers said in an briefing that, while normal shedding of skin cells would eventually cause the monitors to come off, he thought they could remain in place as long as two weeks. In addition to monitoring patients in hospitals, other uses for the devices could include monitoring brain waves and muscle movement, sensing the larynx for speech, emitting heat to help heal wounds and perhaps enhancing artificial limbs, Rogers says.