Even before the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused COVID-19, the way healthcare is delivered had undergone a massive transformation, injecting new momentum into medical innovation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, aging populations in developed countries, ubiquitous mobile broadband connectivity, and the development of sophisticated sensing technologies were all driving the adoption of more personalized digital or remote monitoring and diagnostic methods. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued to strain limited hospital facilities, healthcare providers accelerated the deployment of new technologies for testing and monitoring outside of hospitals. Now, innovative sensors not only enable clinically accurate monitoring of key physiological signs at home but also allow for sample testing at the point of care, eliminating the need to send samples to remote laboratories for processing and thus providing faster diagnostic results.
This marks a disruption to standard medical procedures that have been in place for decades. In the traditional medical model, patients only visit the hospital when symptoms become obvious or during routine annual checkups. Furthermore, a single, complete set of test results is sent to a laboratory for analysis before a diagnosis or health assessment can be given. In many cases, a diagnosis is reached long after the patient's initial consultation and is based solely on that single test.
This treatment is meaningful when the cutting-edge equipment needed to monitor vital signs and symptoms is scarce and can only be obtained from hospitals or other specialized medical facilities.
The development of new medical sensing technologies has created conditions for a completely different medical philosophy. This new method of patient monitoring does not use the large, fixed medical monitoring equipment used in hospitals, but rather the following devices:
Small, even wearable devices
Devices with extremely low power consumption that can be powered by batteries.
Provides accurate, clinical-grade measurement results
This allows us to conduct medical monitoring and testing outside of hospitals, either at local healthcare facilities (such as GP practices) or in patients' homes. For greater convenience to patients, wearable devices (such as patches) can operate continuously in inconspicuous locations, providing 24/7 monitoring anytime, anywhere.
Monitoring in real-life situations to obtain more accurate diagnostic results.
The adoption of new remote monitoring technologies is partly due to shortages of medical resources. The peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 placed immense pressure on hospitals, demonstrating that healthcare systems may soon be unable to meet the growing demand for acute care services. Therefore, transferring patients requiring vital sign monitoring from hospitals to clinics or their own homes is a sensible long-term strategy.
Equally important, monitoring using portable or wearable devices can provide more useful data, leading to better treatment outcomes for patients. New medical monitoring technologies support longer-term monitoring of vital signs, such as heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), and body temperature. Continuous monitoring can reveal trends and patterns in epidemics that physicians cannot detect when providing a single diagnosis. The parallel development of artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic technologies means that data stream monitoring can be automated.
This AI-based approach avoids overwhelming doctors with massive amounts of data. Instead, it uses technology to monitor vital signs in the background, only issuing signals when personal intervention from the doctor is required. By detecting early warning signs that indicate future illness, patients and doctors can work together to change medications, lifestyles, or diets to prevent conditions that previously required emergency room visits.
Furthermore, compared to undergoing examinations in a stressful, often artificial, hospital ward, monitoring at home or in a care setting can reveal a patient's true health condition. The latest multi-parameter wearable sensors can combine vital signs with other indicators such as movement and sleep, and analyze medical data in conjunction with the patient's lifestyle.
New breakthroughs in semiconductor technology applications
In the 21st century, a series of semiconductor technologies and computer science achievements have been developed, which have led to the emergence of this new patient detection model.
In the field of optoelectronics, developed optical sensor solutions can perform photoplethysmography (PPG) to calculate heart rate, respiratory rate, and SpO2 using non-invasive optical methods. Miniature MEMS motion sensors can measure patient activity, such as exercise time and sleep quality, linking vital signs to the patient's condition.
In hospitals, many of the devices used to monitor vital signs are bulky and extremely power-intensive. By implementing this measurement capability at the chip level, semiconductor manufacturers like Analog Devices (ADI) can produce products such as medical patches that can be applied to the skin. These patches are battery-powered and can operate continuously for days or weeks, while wirelessly transmitting measurement data to host devices such as smartphones. From the host device, the measurement data can be securely uploaded to a cloud-based diagnostic service, which converts the raw electrical signals into actionable medical data.
Combining technical expertise with applied knowledge
Being able to describe the functional requirements of semiconductor and computing systems, enabling patients to wear smartwatches or patches to monitor their vital signs, is one thing; using solutions employing these technologies in actual products is quite another.
At ADI, we recognize that our services to healthcare technology innovators may begin with semiconductor technology, but cannot end there. Therefore, we bring together technology experts and domain specialists from the healthcare market to support our clients.
The role of medical experts is to gain a deep understanding of application needs and key market attributes such as regulatory compliance and data privacy. For clients developing complex medical products, having access to experts who understand both the technology and the applications allows for faster, more flexible innovation and greater confidence in achieving successful results.
In the field of vital sign monitoring, this applied expertise is supported by development platforms. For example, the Vital Signs Monitoring (VSM) research watch is a multi-parameter open development platform. This convenient wearable device uses a suite of sensors to provide a continuous set of vital sign measurements, which can be used to develop biomedical algorithms.
The VSM research watch uses PPG and ECG to measure heart rate and heart rate variability. A MEMS accelerometer can count steps and provide information to algorithms sensitive to motion artifacts. Sensors on the watch can measure temperature and impedance; these values are used in algorithms to monitor stress and body composition. These features support research conducted in medical and academic institutions to evaluate new use cases for remote patient monitoring.
The benefits of monitoring patients outside of hospitals are evident. Utilizing precise, low-power, miniaturized components such as sensors, analog-to-digital converters, and digital signal processors, ADI's VSM watches and other such development platforms have laid the foundation for innovative medical device manufacturers to build future monitoring devices.
