Summary
Health care monitoring systems can benefit everyone, especially those who need special care and those in dangerous situations where help may be limited, such as for a soldier on a battlefield. Lancaster researchers collaborated with ULTRA-PCS Ltd. to develop biomedical sensors to be a part of their “Soldier as a Platform” (SaaP) concept. Academics will develop wearable biomedical sensors capable of monitoring key physiological parameters (lactate and ions in sweat, for instance) that together may indicate stress, dehydration, shock, etc.
Challenge
One of the primary goals of personalised health care research is to be able to continuously monitor someone’s health and respond effectively with early interventions, thus mitigating the effects of injury or preventing the development of chronic conditions. This requires the development of non-invasive, robust biomedical sensors supported by a robust communications and data analytical system. This health care monitoring system will benefit everyone, especially those who need special care and those in dangerous situations where help may be limited, such as for a soldier on a battlefield.
Actions
Significant research on biomedical sensing is available in the literature. A review of the existing solutions was undertaken, and verified experimentally where appropriate, to understand which solutions should be developed. We investigated which solutions can be extended to have biomorphic capabilities, that is, which have co-sensitivities that can be exploited, which can be monitored using electrical test-signals, or which have potential self-healing capabilities.
A sensor prototype (proof of concept) was developed with the capability of detecting a key physiological analyte. The analyte was agreed with Ultra within the first month of the project based on existing state of the art and a list of key biomarkers that have the potential to complement the ECG and Brain monitoring capability already in place at ULTRA-PCS.
Enabled by the demonstrator and knowledge developed, a funding bid that targets DARPA, Innovate or other public source for joint academia/industry programs was developed with ULTRA-PCS and where practical a key customer and complementary partners (e.g. Bath University).
Further work to maximise impact of the concept will be undertaken to deliver an integration capability primarily with ULTRA-LYNX. This will include work associated with the sensor interface and methods of integrating data from more than one biosensor, the partition of the data processing hardware between the sensor and the data processing unit and the networking capability.
The deployment and pathway to impact for both the biosensors within a SaaP system and the roll-out into complementary markets will be dependent on both the integrity of data the platform can provide, its dependability in harsh and difficult environments and expected useful life. Here, work will extend the biomorphic concept to this application so the biosensors being integrated can adapt to random events like shock, damage and degradation. Prognostic solutions will be explored in addition to healing solutions involving reconfiguration, tuning or stimulation of self-healing solutions.
These concepts have already been demonstrated as credible and have the potential to deliver a paradigm shift in the sensing market.
Results
The team developed wearable biomedical sensors capable of monitoring key physiological parameters to remotely monitor the health of soldiers. This will contribute to mitigating the effects of injury and preventing the development of chronic conditions and can be diversified in the future for other sectors. The technology developed can also be used as a proof of concept for broader applications in the health care sector.
This advancement in personalised health care will immeasurably improve the health and wellness of individuals where help may be limited, such as soldiers on a battlefield. The technology can be diversified long term for the health care sector and workers operating safety critical systems, using the existing technology as a proof of concept for this purpose. As well as improving the health, wellness, and safety of these individuals, this opens the product to new markets and could have a positive economic impact.
