20230723-Podcast: Pills No More: Patches As The Future of Drug Delivery

22 Jun, 2023

MIT researchers have developed a wearable patch that applies painless ultrasonic waves to the skin, creating tiny channels that drugs can pass through. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

In this episode, we discuss the breakthrough research by MIT engineers to effectively deliver drugs through the skin allowing for a lower dosage of active ingredients needed per use and a potentially pill-free implementation of commonly used drugs!

healthcare

- wearable

In this episode, we discuss the breakthrough research by MIT engineers to effectively deliver drugs through the skin allowing for a lower dosage of active ingredients needed per use and a potentially pill-free implementation of commonly used drugs!

This podcast is sponsored by Mouser Electronics.

(4:00) - Wearable patch can painlessly deliver drugs through the skin

This episode was brought to you by Mouser, our favorite place to get electronics parts for any project, whether it be a hobby at home or a prototype for work. Click HERE to learn about how wearable technology has been making its way into the medical industry.

As always, you can find these and other interesting & impactful engineering articles on Wevolver.com.

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Building winning healthcare wearables with Nordic's development tools

Wireless solutions are already playing an increasingly essential role in the future of global healthcare, but more innovation is needed.

Thomas Soderholm

fromNordic Semiconductor

22 Sep, 2021

healthcare

- wearable

Wireless solutions are already playing an increasingly essential role in the future of global healthcare, but more innovation is needed.

Challenges to be met include obesity and diabetes resulting from increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Add to that the major healthcare crisis caused by Covid-19 (and so-called Long Covid), which threaten to stretch the worldwide healthcare system to its limits.

To encourage novel wearables for a healthier world, Nordic Semiconductor recently called on the Hackster.io forum—a hardware education community—to create new product prototypes or Proofs-of-Concept (PoC) that push the boundaries of what smart healthcare wearables can do.

Advanced wearables challenge

Nordic and Hackster's Advanced Wearables open design contest invited applicants to build and document either a medical wearable for remote patient monitoring or their "dream smart wearable."

Remote patient monitoring helps ease the burden on hospitals and allows healthcare professionals to access a more complete picture of a person's health while the patient stays home.

Smart wearables help people monitor their fitness levels and generally stay motivated to lead a more active lifestyle.

The winning projects in the Advanced Wearables competition were awarded based on the entries' creativity, impact, and execution.

Challenge A – 'Dream Smart Wearables' projects were based on:

Nordic nRF5340 DK, a precertified single-board development kit with a dual-core nRF5340 Bluetooth 5.2 SoC supporting data transfer or connection to other devices using Bluetooth LE
The Adafruit Display, a touchscreen display shield with a built-in microSD card connection

Challenge B – 'Remote Patient Monitoring,' projects were based on:

nRF5340 DK
Nordic's Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2), a low-cost, highly accurate tool for measuring and controlling power consumption in embedded hardw

Multi-tasking wearable continuously monitors glucose, alcohol, and lactate

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a prototype of such a wearable that can continuously monitor several health stats.

Richard Hulskes

30 Jun, 2022

healthcare

- wearable

This article was discussed in our Next Byte podcast.

The full article will continue below.

This article was written by Liezel Labios at the Jacobs School of Engineering and re-published on Wevolver.com

Imagine being able to measure your blood sugar levels, know if you’ve had too much to drink, and track your muscle fatigue during a workout, all in one small device worn on your skin. Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a prototype of such a wearable that can continuously monitor several health stats—glucose, alcohol, and lactate levels—simultaneously in real-time.

The device is about the size of a stack of six quarters. It is applied to the skin through a Velcro-like patch of microscopic needles, or microneedles, that are each about one-fifth the width of a human hair. Wearing the device is not painful—the microneedles barely penetrate the surface of the skin to sense biomolecules in interstitial fluid, which is the fluid surrounding the cells beneath the skin. The device can be worn on the upper arm and sends data wirelessly to a custom smartphone app.

“This is like a complete lab on the skin,” said center director Joseph Wang, a professor of nanoengineering at UC San Diego and co-corresponding author of the paper. “It is capable of continuously measuring multiple biomarkers at the same time, allowing users to monitor their health and wellness as they perform their daily activities.”

Most commercial health monitors, such as continuous glucose monitors for patients with diabetes, only measure one signal. The problem with that, the researchers said, is that it leaves out information that could help people with diabetes, for example, manage their disease more effectively. Monitoring alcohol levels is useful because drinking alcohol can lower glucose levels. Knowing both levels can help people with diabetes prevent their blood

20230723-Podcast: Pills No More: Patches As The Future of Drug Delivery

In this episode, we discuss the breakthrough research by MIT engineers to effectively deliver drugs through the skin allowing for a lower dosage of active ingredients needed per use and a potentially pill-free implementation of commonly used drugs!

Advanced wearables challenge

Self-monitoring physical activity matters, according to smartwatch study

Smart helmets to prevent head trauma

How cellular IoT can help seniors maintain their independence

In this episode, we discuss the breakthrough research by MIT engineers to effectively deliver drugs through the skin allowing for a lower dosage of active ingredients needed per use and a potentially pill-free implementation of commonly used drugs!

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