Industrial Automation Magazine India

Henkel materials enable remote monitoring of coronavirus patients

Published on : Saturday 02-05-2020

Collaboration in printed electronics Partners have developed innovative smart health patch that is currently tested for medical use for Covid-19 patients.

Monday, April 27, 2020 – Together with six medical and technology companies Henkel has developed an innovative smart health patch that allows continuous, remote and wireless monitoring of the respiration, heart rate and soon also temperature of patients. The product – initially set up to monitor the vital functions of patients with heart failure and epilepsy – will soon be tested for the use of monitoring coronavirus patients in a Belgian hospital. The partners aim to further roll-out the technology over the next month to respond to a potential new coronavirus surge in autumn. The new ‘Covid-19 smart patch’ is the result of a collaboration between the Belgian companies Byteflies, Melexis, Quad Industries, Televic and Z-Plus and the Belgian departments of multinationals Henkel and Nitto. All partners provided expertise and technology components for the 15 cm long adhesive patch, which can easily applied to the left side of the chest. It has been developed especially for skin-friendly, medical use and contains high-tech electrodes and conductive inks to register vital signs. A ‘sensor dot’ located in the centre of the patch collects the patient’s vital signs and sends all the data to the cloud wirelessly. A mini temperature sensor will also be integrated soon. The healthcare centre’s nurses and the patient’s general practitioner or specialist can then access this cloud data on a user-friendly platform. Thus, the innovative patch can improve the patient follow-up at home and reduces time and effort for medical stuff in data management.

Henkel as a leading global adhesive provider has developed the electrodes and conductive inks. Thanks to the innovative materials, the patch can be used for five days rather than just one day. “The innovative smart patch demonstrates the huge potentials of printed electronics applications and the power of collaborative approaches in the market,” says Stijn Gillissen, Global Head of Printed Electronics at Henkel. “At the moment most Covid-19 patients’ vital signs are recorded manually. The staff in hospitals and care homes need to take these vital signs several times a day and then process the data manually. Our system has the potential to save them a lot of time and reduce the amount of times they are exposed to possible infection.”