Tracking vital signs with device as thin as a tattoo

Suppose,however,that a patients electrode patches were consolidated into a single and weightless version as thin as a press-on tattoo. And suppose a tiny radio transmitter eliminated the need for wires tethering the patient to monitoring machines.

Epidermal electronics a term coined by researchers who have produced prototype devices at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign may enable constant medical monitoring anywhere.

The devices are part of a growing field,called mHealth,that uses mobile technologies. Simpler forms include smartphone apps for patient education or disease management. More complex ones include wireless sensors to monitor vital signs.

MHealth is managing conditions continuously,so that they dont reach a crisis, says Donald M Casey,chief executive of the West Wireless Health Institute,a nonprofit research organisation in San Diego.

Wireless sensor technology is advancing rapidly. Last year,Corventis,a medical device company based in San Jose,California,received Food and Drug Administration approval to market its Nuvant Mobile Cardiac Telemetry System,used to detect arrhythmias. A 2-by-6-inch electronic gizmo on a patients chest sends an electrocardiogram to a nearby transmitter,which relays it to a central monitoring centre.

Sensors on everyone,including a 60-year-old watching a football game who doesnt know hes at risk for a heart attack,would greatly reduce the chances of a fatal attack, says Dr. Leslie A Saxon,a cardiologist at the University of Southern California.

Not all mobile monitoring technology can transmit data wirelessly. The patches that Dr Saxon will use,for example,store their data within; the information will be uploaded when the devices are retrieved at the end of the study. In other cases,the technology has been approved only for hospital settings. But,looking ahead,the promise of epidermal electronics has excited mHealth advocates.

Casey singled out the work of the University of Illinois researchers,led by John A Rogers,an engineering professor. Their work on epidermal electronics was published last month in the journal Science. If the technology delivers, Casey says,thats when well move from sensors on people diagnosed with a disease to literally everybody.