Wearable Sensors Can Help in Diagnosing Disease

The innovation in electronic health care is changing the way doctors monitor and diagnose diseases. A number of innovative biomedical devices have been introduced that extends the capabilities of the medical staff in diagnosing diseases.

One the technological innovations in the health care system include smart wearable sensors that are capable of pre-operative monitoring. With the advent of miniature circuit chips, microcontroller functionality and wireless data transmission, wearable sensors are now a common health care community that people can wear on their wrists or around their neck. The smart sensors can monitor skin temperature, heart rate, blood glucose levels and other variables that can determine what is going on inside a person’s body.

Smartwatch
Devices such as the smartwatch can monitor many vital signals when attached to a person’s wrist

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine had found that the smart sensors are particularly effective in diagnosing the onset of infection, insulin resistance, and inflammation. The research team had examined nearly 2 billion measures from about 60 people. They had also collected continuous data from the wearable biosensors of the participants and compared them with the laboratory tests of the blood chemistry and other traditional measures.

The participants had used commercially available sensors that displayed data on heart rate, weight, blood oxygen level, skin temperature, calories expended and even exposure to X-rays and gamma rays. The devices had collected the data during different activities including walking, sleeping, running, biking, and others.

According to one of the researchers, Eric Topol, who is also a professor of Genomics at the Scripps Research Institute, the data collected by the smart wearable devices were impressive. A lot of sensors are available in the market that can collect a large range of variables related to the individual’s health.

The study found that the smart devices can accurately track deviation from the base values. Some of the devices can also link the aberrations to specific environmental health disorders. The devices can examine distinct patterns of deviations and then correlate them with a health disorder. Algorithm of the devices can detect the changes in patterns that greatly help in diagnosing and treating the illnesses.

At the moment, a number of companies produce these sensors. Some of the sensors are also being produced for detecting disorders in the animals. The devices with a few modifications can accurately be used in detecting anomalies in the animal’s health.

The innovative smart wearable devices have made possible precision livestock farming techniques. By using the smart sensors, farmers can accurately monitor the health of the animals. The devices can help in determining whether the animals are afflicted with diseases. This can ensure that the meat or dairy products that are sold for human consumption are perfectly safe for consumption.

The smart devices can sense saliva, sweat, and analyze micro-fluids. The biosensors and wearable devices that are available in the market can be integrated to create an efficient tracking system that can display the health status in real time. This can offer a timely diagnosis of illnesses that can ultimately decrease the economic losses involved in medical treatment.