One problem with clinical studies is test subjects typically must go to a hospital or physician’s office for testing. Mobile health and remote monitoring health tech devices are changing the face of medical research, providing more data while making the process more convenient for test subjects.
One example of this is the Everion wearable developed by Biovotion. This past summer, researchers from the University Hospital of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich adopted the sensor patch as part of a program to track palliative cancer patients in their homes. The Everion measures heart rate, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, skin blood perfusion, and physical activity. The device transmits its clinical-grade data wirelessly, and requires no calibration or user interaction. The device has a high adoption rate among study subjects.
Biovotion plans to add additional biometric measures in the future, including breathing rate, stress, sleep quality, and blood glucose levels. Even with its current set of features, however, the Everion wearable is proving to be a useful data collection device for medical research. The company claims to monitor more than 30 million heartbeats daily, which will create a database that could be mined for valuable insights about disease and treatments.
