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Wearable Electronics: The Shape-shifting Future of Medical Devices
December 11, 2014 |Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Think about your last doctor’s appointment. You probably had your blood pressure taken and blood drawn for routine tests. Your doctor may have listened to your heart with a stethoscope and then referred you to the hospital for an electrocardiogram (EKG). There, a nurse pasted electrodes on your chest so a machine the size of an office printer could record the electrical activity of your heart. All a necessary part of your wellness routine, but you had to take a day off work and endure a little pain in the process.
Now imagine this scenario: You check in at the doctor’s office. The receptionist hands you a small, self-adhesive patch that you wear on your skin and it instantly transmits all your vital healthcare data directly to the doctor--before you even get to the exam room. After a brief chat with the doctor, you are sent on your way with a clean bill of health, and this is all accomplished during your lunch break.
This is the future potential of flexible electronics in wearable medical devices: To free both patient and doctor from the bulky and unwieldy technology of the past. When most of us think of electronics on a PCB, we think of a rigid, stiff device. However, advances in electronics, flexible materials and technology are driving development of new wearable electronics that can bend and fold just like paper.
Flexible electronics are lightweight, portable and so thin and supple that they can conform to the human body. They represent a nascent, but fast-growing industry. A report from IDTechEx, Printed, Organic & Flexible Electronics: Forecasts, Players & Opportunities 2013–2023, found that the total market for these technologies will grow almost five-fold in 10 years, from about $16 billion in 2013 to nearly $77 billion in 2023. Likely no industry stands to see more innovation from flexible electronics than the medical device industry.
What if diabetics could wear a contact lens that continuously monitors their glucose levels, forever eliminating finger sticks and bloody test strips? What if, instead of around-the-clock bedside checks that wear on patients and nurses alike, a tissue-thin adhesive patch could report hospital patients’ vital signs directly to the nurses’ station--or to the patient’s electronic medical record? What if a flexible circuit could detect--or even treat--the first signs of recurring malignancy in cancer patients? What if these monitors enable us to gather big data on vitals that through intelligent prognostic analysis could predict the onset of a malady?Read the full article here.Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the November 2014 issue of The PCB Magazine.