Imperial: trial begins of ‘digital plaster’ body monitor

Imperial College London spin-out Toumaz Technology Ltd has begun clinical trials of its Sensium “digital plaster” wireless body monitor in collaboration with a research team at Imperial.

The trial of the ultra-low power, ultra-small size body monitoring system is being funded by the healthcare company CareFusion and conducted at St Mary’s Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The aim is to demonstrate the quality physiological data that can be continuously acquired by wireless, unobtrusive Sensium-enabled devices. Initial results are expected by the end of December this year.

In the trial, volunteers and patient groups will be provided with a wearable Sensium digital “plaster” or “patch” that can continuously monitor multiple vital signs, including temperature, heart rate and respiration. The focus of the trial will be to verify that the physiological data acquired by the digital plaster system within a clinical setting is equivalent to that acquired using current gold-standard monitors in use in hospitals – equipment that is often bulky, expensive and fixed, such that patient mobility is impaired.

The Sensium digital plaster is wireless and unobtrusive, meaning that patients can remain ambulatory in hospital while still being monitored. This flexibility allows continuous vital sign monitoring to be extended to patients who would not normally be monitored, thereby offering the potential to increase patient safety. The Sensium digital plaster is a disposable device with a working lifetime of several days.

The trial is being conducted in three phases, an initial phase with non-patient volunteers followed by two patient study groups: patients recovering from surgery, and patients with specific medical conditions in general wards.

Stephen Brett, a consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, who is leading the trial, said, “This technology has the potential to improve the capturing of patient’s vital signs within all areas of the hospital – enabling key physiological data to be acquired at an increased frequency, with the minimum of inconvenience to patients, and without the requirement to connect patients to immobile pieces of equipment.”

Chris Toumazou, CEO and Founder of Toumaz Holdings, and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, said, “It is fantastic to see the Sensium technology coming to commercial fruition, and for us to be launching this study at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

“This is a key stage in our commercial journey and one that opens the door to some very exciting applications of our technology in clinical environments next year. The business case is simple: by using the disposable digital plaster to monitor on a 24-7 basis, critical medical information can be monitored that would not otherwise have been detected.”