The HRS-I will monitor your health and wirelessly transmit vital signs to a mobile phone or computer.

If capturing every moment of your life on camera isn’t enough to satisfy your recording needs then you should take a long deep look inside yourself. And then record that. According to Nikkei, Japanese venture firm WIN Human Recorder Ltd is set to bring a health monitor patch to market that is capable of keeping tabs on all your vitals. The HRS-I is a small (30mm x 30mm x 5mm) lightweight (7g) device that adheres to your chest and relays the data it collects to a computer or mobile phone via wireless connection. While the HRS-I only directly monitors electrocardiograph information, body surface temperature, and movement (via accelerometers), it can connect to sensors for heart rate, brain waves, respiration and many other important health indicators. WIN is selling the HRS-I for around ¥30,000 (~$330) and providing monitoring software for around ¥10,000 (~$110). The company hopes for ¥1 billion in sales in the first year, and ¥5 billion in three years, presumably by marketing the device to the ever growing healthcare sector.

Originally developed at the University of Tokyo’s Advanced Institute of Wearable Environmental Information Networks, the HRS-I bares a remarkable similarity to Toumaz Technology’s Digital Plaster. Both are low cost wearable devices that provide some direct monitoring and serve as a hub for further sensor data. They both use wireless connections to relay data, last for a few days on a single charge, and they both are aimed at remotely monitoring patients in hospitals, nursing facilities, and homes. Having talked with Keith Errey of Toumaz, however, I believe Digital Plaster is going to be less expensive and will be marketed as a disposable item. Also, I’m uncertain if Toumaz would adopt a monthly payment system for their support software. There are undoubtedly more distinctions that will become readily apparent as Digital Plaster moves from clinical trial to market in the next year or so.

The HRS-I will come in three distinct appearances. So I guess we can choose the best health monitor to complete our ensemble? That's a little silly perhaps. Although I do have a tie that matches the one in the middle...

You can’t really establish a trend with just two data points, but I’m inclined to think that the appearances of Digital Plaster and the HRS-I are good proof that the wearable health monitor is going to be a staple of hospital stays in the future. The more information doctors have at their disposal the better decisions they can make. When paired with software designed to help doctors take advantage of bioinformatics the wireless health monitor could become a key ingredient in revolutionizing (and digitizing) health care. I’m certainly looking forward to an upgrade to Medicine 2.0…but not to the affect it may have on Facebook Status updates:

“Aaron Saenz is showing irregular brain wave activity.” [Comment * Like * Share]

Eh, it’s complicated.

[image credits: WIN Human Recorder Ltd via NIKKEI]

That little pink patch is Digital Plaster, a disposable and wireless way to track your vital signs.

Patients at a hospital seem to be caught in a web of wires, sticky pads, and monitors, but that may all change very soon. According to the recent press release,  Toumaz Technology, makers of the Sensium biomonitoring platform, are working with Imperial College London to test Digital Plaster, a wireless and disposable patch that transmits a patient’s vital signs. The trial will test to see if Digital Plaster works as well as traditional gold-standard monitors and should finish by the end of this year. If it proves successful, Toumaz could set the industry standard for disposable wireless health monitors.

When I talked with Keith Errey, CEO of Toumaz, this summer the digital plaster concept was just being sent off for large scale production. Seeing this trial underway lends credit to the other possibilities for which the Sensium technology is slated (such as expanding into veterinary, military, and law enforcement).Eventually, the disposable monitor (which already measures heart rate, temperature, and respiration) could be the only piece of equipment on your body when you are in a hospital. Slap it on when you come in, throw it away when you leave, digital plaster could simplify your stay and remove the need for all the wires. Digital Plaster will also allow doctors to have access to patients’ vital signs, or be alerted to their change, via secure link on a mobile phone.

Want to check your patient's vital signs? One day, iPhone could have an app for that.

The trial for Digital Plaster will take place in three parts: non-patient volunteers, then patients after surgery, and general patients with a specific healthcare problem. These sections should give researchers insight into how the technology excels or fails in different situations in a hospital setting. Even if the results from the trial are less than appealing, the basic premise for the technology is sound. As the number of vital signs doctors are interested in increases, and monitors produce more data, it will become very important to have a single point of access to all that information. The Sensium platform, or another technology like it, could be such an access point and help doctors keep track of patients in real time. Hopefully that will lead to healthier and happier hospital visits.

[photo credits: Toumaz Technology]