Sensor bracelet for continuous monitoring
n the project M3Infekt with ten Fraunhofer institutes and four medical partners, a prototype for a modular and mobile sensor bracelet will be developed, for monitoring the relevant biosignals of e.g. Covid-19 Patients in order to be able to recognize the deterioration of their health condition. Fraunhofer EMFT contributes to the project with its expertise in flexible electronics and system integration. The selected sensors for monitoring the disease parameters are integrated on a thin, flexible carrier foil. An overall concept for power management, energy storage and energy harvesting shall enable the energy-autarkic operation of the system. Integration of an energy-efficient communication interface is essential for the online transmission of the sensor data into a central database for analysis and processing for this special purpose.
Deterioration of the health condition is accompanied by several non-specific symptoms, which makes the right diagnosis difficult. Therefore, sensor data fusion as well as data analysis using methods of machine learning and artificial intelligence shall be utilizd in the project. This enables creating a characteristic pattern from several separate non-specific parameters, which makes an exact diagnosis and valid statements concerning the patient status, course of disease and prognosis possible.
Until the system can actually be used on patients or in the hospital, further development work is necessary, which will take some time. In the next step, the development results achieved so far are to be further developed to product level together with industrial partners and transferred to the next phase with the necessary clinical studies.