Photo credit: Elliott Abel/ Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
New technology could allow doctors to monitor the progress of stroke victims outside the hospital, serving as a game changer for patients and healthcare providers tackling the disease.
Researchers from Northwestern University—in partnership with Shirley Ryan AbilityLab—have created a new wearable sensor that sticks directly to the skin and moves with the body, providing detailed health metrics including heart function, muscle activity and quality of sleep. The research was presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Austin, TX Feb. 17.
“Stretchable electronics allow us to see what is going on inside patients’ bodies at a level traditional wearables simply cannot achieve,” Northwestern University engineering professor John Rogers, who presented the research at the AAAS Annual Meeting said in a statement. “The key is to make them as integrated as possible with the human body.”
Rogers’s research team created a new bandage-like throat sensor that can measure a patient’s ability to swallow, as well as their patterns of speech. The sensor could aid in the diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, a communication disorder associated with strokes.
Speech pathologists generally monitor speech function using microphones that cannot distinguish between patients’ voices and ambient noise.
“Our sensors solve that problem by measuring vibrations of the vocal chords,” Rogers said. “But they only work when worn directly on the throat, which is a very sensitive area of the skin “We developed novel materials for this sensor that bend and stretch with the body, minimizing discomfort to patients.”
The throat sensors could be used in conjunction with electronic biosensors on the legs, arms and chest to monitor a stroke patient’s recovery progress. The intermodal system of sensors streams data wirelessly to clinician’s phones and computers, providing a quantitative, full-body picture of patients’ advanced physical and physiological responses in real time.
“One of the biggest problems we face with stroke patients is that their gains tend to drop off when they leave the hospital,” Arun Jayaraman, a research scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab research hospital in Chicago and a wearable technology expert, said in a statement. “With the home monitoring enabled by these sensors, we can intervene at the right time, which could lead to better, faster recoveries for patients.”
The sensors are wireless, eliminating barriers posed by traditional health monitoring devices in clinical settings. Patients can wear them after leaving the hospital, allowing doctors to understand how the patients are functioning in the real world.
“Talking with friends and family at home is a completely different dimension from what we do in therapy,” Leora Cherney, research scientist at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and an expert in aphasia treatment, said in a statement. “Having a detailed understanding of patients’ communication habits outside of the clinic helps us develop better strategies with our patients to improve their speaking skills and speed up their recovery process.”
