Medical wearables for affordable healthcare

An aging population with a growing number of people suffering from chronic illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, drives a relentless rise in the demand for healthcare. It’s a big challenge, not least because fewer and fewer Dutch people want to work in the healthcare sector.

We’re currently 50,000 healthcare workers short. An alternative approach is urgently needed, in which innovation shall play a key role. TNO works diligently with partners and spin-off companies on efficient healthcare. One of the examples being our medical wearables.

Medical wearable: smart ‘skin’ that monitors your health

Shavini Stuart-Wijesuriya, researcher in wearables at TNO, explains: ‘A medical wearable is, for example, a patch that collects data about the condition or health of your body. Compared to a smartwatch, a medical wearable provides possibilities for more detailed continuous information able to support clinical decision making.’

‘In our work on wearables, we focus on how to collect information suitable for health care professionals, for example: breathing, temperature, oxygen, and heart function. Digital health tools can help provide insight into the healing process of wounds, for example. Or you can monitor a baby's health in the womb using ultrasound techniques.’

Nina Haring, scientist at TNO, adds: ‘Around the world, 1 billion people are using wearables. These include smart watches or smart glucose meters that provides insight into the state of your health. TNO is really in the vanguard when it comes to developing new technologies that make managing health easier. To do this, we collaborate closely with both patients and care providers. This ensures that new technologies offer valuable insights into health and are also applicable in practice.’

30,000 new admissions of patients with heart failure every year

A major health challenge we face is an increase in chronic cardiovascular diseases. There are currently already 1.7 million Dutch people struggling with a cardiovascular disease. The Netherlands has 30,000 new admissions of patients with heart failure every year, which adds up to 800 million euros.

Nina: ‘In order to reduce the disease burden and make the care for cardiac patients more efficient, we’ve identified patient needs and discussed these with care providers. Based on these findings, Shavini and her colleagues developed a wearable that monitors heart failure. We then tested it in a clinical setting, and examined where in the patient journey it could best be deployed.’

Thiru Kanagasabapathi, CEO of TNO spin-off company AIKON Health: ‘A patient diagnosed with heart failure suffers from shortness of breath and is admitted to hospital. After being discharged, heart failure patients are required to visit polyclinics every fortnight for assessment. Our wearable allows patients to receive care from home, which means fewer stressful visits to the hospital. The wearable therefore reduces the burden for both the patient and the healthcare system.’

‘At this moment, more than half of patients with heart failure are readmitted within four months of discharge from hospital. Wearable monitoring can reduce that number by 25%. Promising solutions like this are easy to implement and can facilitate efficient use of healthcare staff.’

‘Our wearable monitors 24/7 and allows the patient to get care from home, which means fewer stressful visits to the hospital. Thus, the wearable relieves both the patient and the healthcare system as a whole.’

TNO is 3 to 4 years ahead of competitors in the market

AIKON Health is a spin-off company of TNO. Thiru says: ‘At TNO, you work on the latest and most essential technologies and are in the vanguard. Moreover, you can also bring such a technology to the market by starting a start-up from TNO, like AIKON Health. That’s incredibly valuable. Our goal is to support heart failure patients and reduce the burden on healthcare professionals with comfortable wearables by 2027. We’re just about ready to bring it to the market.’

Nina: ‘At TNO, we make technology usable in practice. We focus on, among others, digital technologies that provide insight into health. We do this through measuring health aspects using wearables, but also by providing people with personalised health advice. The latter also very much involves factors the patient is in control of, such as lifestyle. We closely collaborate with colleagues from the social sciences on ways to bring about behavioural change.’

‘We combine knowledge and expertise in the fields of technology, biology and sociology to develop digital solutions that empower patients to manage their own health and at the same time alleviates the burden on care providers.’

TNO: make the future your reality

Shavini says: ‘What’s so incredibly cool is that at TNO we have so much knowledge and so many disciplines under one roof! For every challenge relating to a wearable, we can involve a colleague. From printed electronics or battery power to data storage or design.’

‘I always loved science fiction series as a child and now I'm in them myself, but for real! It's so rewarding to be able to say later on: “We contributed to that!” If you want to learn something, you certainly can at TNO.’