Image credit – CHONGHE WANG AND SHENG XU, UC SAN DIEGO
Need to take your blood pressure? Unfortunately, at the moment there really isn’t a particularly convenient way to do so, save for attaching those huge cuffs around your arm. This means that you need to be at home or at a doctor’s office in order to take a reading, but researchers at the University of California, San Diego, might have come with up a solution.
This is because they have developed a tiny patch that can be stuck/worn on the skin of the patient that will continuously measure the wearer’s blood pressure. This means that it will make it easier to monitor blood pressure, even on the go, without having to bring around a bulky device. The patch also holds a lot of potential as it could also be used to eventually help monitor other vital organs, like the liver, lungs, and even the brain.
How the patch works is by sending ultrasonic waves that penetrates below the skin and reflects off the wearer’s tissues and blood, which are then sent back to the sensor to attempt to take a reading of the wearer’s blood pressure. At the moment, the patch isn’t too practical as it will still need a power source, but it does hold potential.
When exactly we might see it being used in the field remains to be seen, but it is interesting to see how tech has helped along the medical field, where we’re starting to see more monitoring tools shrunk down to more portable sizes and placed into devices like our smartwatches.
Filed in . Read more about Health, Science and Wearable Tech. Source: technologyreview