SyncThink, a next-generation neurotechnology company, and makers of the award-winning EYE-SYNC technology, announces today that it has completed CE Mark certification, affirming conformity to European Medical Device Regulation (MDR), also known as ISO13485. EYE-SYNC will be registered as a Class I medical device.

“The CE Mark authorization for EYE-SYNC is a tremendous advancement in our commitment to bringing objective, reliable measures of neurological function to healthcare providers in Europe,” said SyncThink Chairman and CEO Gary Gregory. “We are excited to expand our commercial opportunities and strengthen our position in the market while making our product more accessible to patients everywhere.”

The new certification allows for the commercialization of EYE-SYNC in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK), expanding opportunities for new business development and distribution in applicable nations. Providers in these areas will be able to purchase and implement the EYE-SYNC system beginning this month, utilizing the most recent version of EYE-SYNC that comes equipped with PicoXR’s Neo 3 Pro Eye, the company said in a press release.

The CE Mark is the latest advancement among a series of growth announcements for the company. In addition to the PicoXR partnership, SyncThink recently announced the expansion of its clinical advisory board, shortly after receiving its second FDA clearance for EYE-SYNC as an Aid to Concussion Diagnosis or mild Traumatic Brain injury (mTBI). Earlier this year, SyncThink was selected by Augmented Reality (AR) leader Magic Leap as a partner in their efforts to expand into healthcare worldwide.

The EYE-SYNC technology combines proprietary software and data analytics with high-performance eye-tracking sensors to measure and quantify eye movement biomarkers reflective of neurological impairment or disease. It is currently used by healthcare providers in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, sports, the military, and in CNS drug development around the world.

Read more: Wise Therapeutics and Soterix Announce Results of Their Collaborative Study Combining Digital Therapy With Neurostimulation Device

The Conformitè Europëenne (CE) Mark. confirms the manufacturer’s goods conform with European health, safety, and environmental protection standards. It is defined as the European Union’s (EU) mandatory conformity marking for regulating the goods sold within the European Economic Area (EEA) since 1985. The CE marking represents a manufacturer’s declaration that products comply with the EU’s New Approach Directives. These directives not only apply to products within the EU but also to products that are manufactured in or designed to be sold in the EEA. This makes the CE marking recognizable worldwide even to those unfamiliar with the EEA.

About SyncThink

SyncThink is on a mission to provide objective neurological measurements that assist medical professionals in assessing brain health, delivering therapies, and optimizing performance. SyncThink develops revolutionary eye-tracking software and analytic technologies, delivered in a rapid, accurate, and easy-to-use XR platform. With more than 30 published peer-reviewed papers and 15 granted patents, the SyncThink platform uses a series of 60-second assessments to objectively measure eye movements to identify impairments and offers multiple modalities to improve dynamic vision. FDA-cleared for detecting eye-tracking impairments and as an aid to concussion diagnosis, EYE-SYNC is used by leading medical centers such as Stanford and Massachusetts General, the U.S. military, and more than 20 top universities, SyncThink is transforming neurological assessment, recovery, and performance for health and sport.

NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, is currently evaluating PDMonitor, a continuous monitoring system for people with Parkinson’s disease created by medical device company PD Neurotechnology, for use on the NHS.

The August 31 meeting of the NICE special committee is the first step towards establishing guidelines for - and ultimately driving clinical uptake of - these technologies, which include: the Personal KinetiGraph (PKG) movement recording system from Global Kinetics; the Kinesia 360, and KinesiaU from Great Lakes Neurotechnologies; the PDMonitor from PD Neurotechnology; and STAT-ON from Sense4Care. KinesiaU is pending CE marking, while the remaining four are already CE-marked.

Expanding patient review options

The assessment will evaluate whether such remote continuous monitoring devices are effective and reliable for monitoring motor symptoms, tremors, and sleep disturbance that could indicate if the patient is deteriorating or not. Assessing movement at night may also help identify sleep-related issues such as interrupted sleep which could be caused by symptoms returning when medications wear off or nocturia.

Read more: Ava: AI-Powered Digital Assistant for Seniors Developed by 100Plus

The data collected could potentially be used by clinicians to manage symptoms during, in between, and sometimes in place of, in-office review appointments, according to NICE.

These five technologies generally comprise a wearable (though the number of devices and place where they are worn would vary from one system to another) and associated software and management app. Only products capable of generating results with no input, or limited input, from the user have been included in this assessment, reports FirstWord HealthTech.

“Parkinson’s is the world’s second most common neurodegenerative disease and a significant cause of disability. Patient's quality of life and disease progression strongly depend on the consistent, prompt staging of the disease and optimal timing as well as dosing of the prescribed therapy," said Professor Ray Chaudhuri, head of Parkinson's research at King's College Hospital, who has been piloting PDMonitor with private patients since March 2022.

“PDMonitor is supporting a paradigm shift in Parkinson’s care by improving the quality and timeliness of information physicians have to assess the disease. Monitoring patients at home, continuously while they conduct everyday activities, allows treatment decisions to be made more frequently and physicians to respond faster to changing symptoms. While you cannot reverse Parkinson’s, you can delay the deterioration of symptoms and possibly decrease the risk of falling. Optimizing care means the disease progresses slower in time and the therapeutic window is kept open.”

Ellipsis Health, the market leader in AI-generated voice biomarker technology, and Ceras Health, a leader in digital health solutions, announced a partnership that will integrate Ellipsis Health's breakthrough technology that uses the human voice as a biomarker for mental health and well-being into Ceras' clinical monitoring platform. This integration will combine Ellipsis Health's AI and deep learning technology with Ceras Health's clinical monitoring and health data analytics platform, enabling real-time severity scores for anxiety and depression to improve care and triage patients in need.

Currently, mental health conditions are at epidemic proportions. In the US, 28 percent of people have depression, while 36 percent suffer from anxiety, and 41 percent reported mental health disorders within the last year, two times more than in 2019. The National Alliance on Mental Health estimates that 55 percent of people with mental illness are not receiving treatment, and there is a projected shortage of up to 30,000 psychiatrists in the US by 2024. This explosive growth, coupled with the difficulty in accessing the right treatment for many populations, is part of the impetus for the Ellipsis Health and Ceras Health partnership. Together, the companies plan to bring greater access to mental health treatment for the more than 18 million Medicare patients who have mental health conditions, according to a press release.

"This new partnership will advance the state of mental health care, enabling Ellipsis Health to put its cutting-edge voice technology to work - identifying people in need and then connecting them into integrated behavioral health services," said Mainul Mondal, founder and CEO of Ellipsis Health. "We are proud to partner with Ceras Health, an organization that shares our commitment to using innovative technology to ensure that those in need have access to the right care at the right time, with the potential to transform how mental healthcare is identified, monitored, and delivered."

Bringing technology-powered innovation to mental health care, Ellipsis Health is giving voice to a new standard of care, pioneering the only clinically validated vital sign for mental health. By harnessing the unique power of the human voice as a biomarker for mental well-being, along with machine learning and AI, Ellipsis Health identifies, measures, and monitors the severity of stress, anxiety, and depression at scale. Its technology analyzes a short voice sample to create an objective and scalable clinical decision support tool.

Read more: Fujitsu and Salesforce Team Up on Healthcare Solutions

"This unique partnership with Ellipsis Health aligns with Ceras Health's commitment to providing impactful care for our patients with chronic diseases and innovating how we deliver this care," said Udaya Devineni, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ceras. "The ability to access mental healthcare has never been more important given these unprecedented times, especially for those patients who are also managing chronic diseases, and we are excited about the potential of providing patients with easy and direct access to mental health support."

Ceras Health will be using Ellipsis Health's technology in its digital transitions of care solutions which are transforming how healthcare is delivered, especially for Medicare and other vulnerable populations. By using a combination of 24/7 clinical expertise, remote patient monitoring, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced data analytics, Ceras Health's solutions blend clinical expertise and digital tools to help patients get the whole person personalized care they need to drive improvements in their health outcomes.

About Ellipsis Health

Ellipsis Health was founded with the belief that a person's mental health should have the same priority as one's physical health. The company saw an opportunity to connect the dots between the two - giving voice to a new standard of mental health care. By harnessing the unique power of the human voice as a biomarker for mental well-being, along with machine learning and AI, Ellipsis Health has established the only clinically validated vital sign for mental health. Its technology identifies, measures, and monitors the severity of stress, anxiety, and depression at scale by analyzing a short voice sample to create an objective and scalable clinical decision support tool. Through partnerships with providers, payers, employers, and digital health companies, Ellipsis Health is working to positively impact the quality of care, shorten the time to diagnosis, drive workflow efficiencies, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes.

About Ceras Health

Ceras Health is a pioneering digital health solutions provider, utilizing 24/7 clinical expertise and remote monitoring, advanced AI and analytics, connected health devices, and personalized behavioral change, as well as a gamification platform to help and empower patients through their transitions of care. Ceras partners with health systems, providers, and payers, to deliver solutions to vulnerable populations to improve their health outcomes and care experience through digital care with a human touch.

Innovative Eyewear, a developer and retailer of cutting-edge eyeglasses and sunglasses designed to allow users to remain connected to their digital lives, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 980,000 units consisting of 980,000 shares of its common stock and two accompanying warrants to purchase up to 1,960,000 shares of common stock. Each share of common stock is being sold together with two warrants, each to purchase one share of common stock with an exercise price of$7.50 per share at a combined offering price of $7.50, for gross proceeds of approximately $7.35 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses. In addition, Innovative Eyewear has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 147,000 shares of common stock and/or warrants to purchase up to 294,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount. The company offers all of the shares of common stock and warrants.

The shares of common stock and warrants are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market on August 15, 2022, under the symbols "LUCY" and "LUCYW," respectively. The offering is expected to close on August 17, 2022, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions, says a press release.

The company intends to use substantially all of the net proceeds from the offering for advancing its sales and marketing, expanding inventory, updating and producing in-store displays, developing new styles and sizes of the company's smart eyewear, and for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Maxim Group LLC is acting as the sole book-running manager in connection with the offering.

A registration statement on Form S-1 (file no. 333-261616) was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission("SEC"), which became effective on August 12, 2022. A final prospectus relating to the offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus forming part of the effective registration statement. Electronic copies of the prospectus relating to this offering, when available, may be obtained from Maxim Group LLC, 300 Park Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, New York 10022, at (212) 895-3745. Before investing in this offering, interested parties should read in its entirety the registration statement that the company has filed with the SEC, which provides additional information about the company and this offering.

Read more: Enara Health Raises $6M to Tackle the Obesity Epidemic

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Innovative Eyewear, Inc.

Innovative Eyewear is a developer and retailer of smart eyewear, which are designed to allow users to remain connected to their digital lives, while also offering prescription eyewear and sun protection. The company believes that traditional frames, no matter how attractive, do not possess the functionality that many eyeglass wearers need and want. Smart eyewear is a multifunctional product that addresses the needs of the optical, wearables, and digital assistant markets. We believe that the company's products are well positioned in this rapidly growing wearables ecosystem, with the mission to Upgrade Your Eyewear®.

Our Innovation of the Month takes care of the most valuable gift we have: Kids!

Oopsie Heroes is a fun and simple bedwetting alarm for kids. It combines an app with a tiny sensor that teaches children how to make it to the toilet on time at night. The sensor is super simple to use and can be easily fastened to all undergarments and pj’s - no special clothing required. Also, instead of Bluetooth, the Oopsie sensor uses a simple sound to send the information to the app. Goodbye Oopsie moments!

About the Lifesense Group:

LifeSense Group is a global B2B company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands that designs and makes digital health continence solutions. Their international team draws on their breadth of knowledge, expertise, and experiences to continually bring forth new products and applications which can revolutionize the market of digital health continence solutions.

Since its establishment, LifeSense Group has developed, launched, and certified four award-winning digital health continence solutions for the whole family. It is their mission to empower families every day with their technology. LifeSense Group products include Carin (women), Wil (men), Oopsie Heroes (children), as well as Plan Be (healthcare providers). These patented innovations have undergone clinical pilot trials and are reimbursed by health insurers in the Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, and Australia.

ŌURA, the company behind the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance, and Natural Cycles, the first FDA-cleared birth control app, announced their partnership. Natural Cycles users will now be able to sync temperature trend data straight from the Oura Ring, allowing them to track their temperature trends automatically while they sleep rather than manually taking their temperature with an oral thermometer when they wake up.

Natural Cycles works by analyzing established hormone-driven temperature patterns, along with other key fertility indicators, to determine red (fertile) or green (not fertile) days to plan or prevent pregnancy naturally. Previously, Natural Cycles could only obtain temperature data by users manually taking their temperature each morning, says a press release.

“We have been actively working on delivering a seamless measuring experience for our users and we were thrilled when we received FDA clearance to use the Oura Ring with our algorithm,” said Natural Cycles co-founder and CEO Dr. Elina Berglund Scherwitzl. “We are proud to officially launch this partnership and work alongside a company that is similarly committed to delivering advanced health tools to women at a time when it has never been more important. With the help of Oura data, Natural Cycles is powering the future of birth control.”

Reproductive health has historically been underserved by medicine, science, and tech, but thanks to companies such as Natural Cycles and ŌURA, science has taken monumental steps forward in recent years. In 2018, the FDA cleared Natural Cycles as the first contraceptive app, making birth control history. Now, the company has moved one step further by utilizing temperature trend data from the Oura Ring, providing women with an innovative and effortless experience to plan or prevent pregnancy without hormones.

Read more: Apple Reportedly Looking to Add Blood Pressure Monitoring and Fertility Tracking In Smartwatch

The temperature sensors in the Oura Ring generate 1,440 data points each day and are validated to measure temperature changes as precisely as 0.13°C (0.23°F). In addition to temperature trend data, the Natural Cycles algorithm uses heart rate data from the Oura Ring to take into account nights with elevated heart rates, and hence also temperatures, that may be due to lifestyle changes, such as high alcohol consumption, rather than due to menstrual cycle changes.

“Partnering with Natural Cycles is a natural fit given our research has shown that skin temperature data from the Oura Ring can detect important temperature changes throughout the menstrual cycle, including increases around the LH surge, which occurs just before ovulation, and decreases nearing menstruation,” said Holly Shelton, Senior Vice President of Consumer Product at ŌURA. “The partnership between Natural Cycles and Oura shows the power of technology to enable women to better understand and take control of their fertility.”

Beyond cycle insights, the Oura Ring tracks and analyzes sleep quality based on the body’s key vitals and time spent in each sleep stage. During the day, members can utilize the Daytime Heart Rate, Workout Heart Rate, and Automatic Activity Detection features to evaluate their movement and restorative time. These personalized health metrics are then summarized into Sleep, Activity, and Readiness Scores, which are displayed alongside insights and personalized guidance that help provide a holistic view of health.

Natural Cycles users with an Oura Ring can begin syncing their ŌURA data once they switch to ŌURA Mode within the Natural Cycles app. If an Oura user gives explicit consent, ŌURA will only share sleep data with Natural Cycles, which includes temperature trends, HR, sleep length, and sleep stages. The partnership is a one-way integration, and Natural Cycles does not share any sensitive data with ŌURA.

About ŌURA Health

ŌURA is the company behind the Oura Ring - the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance. ŌURA believes health is a daily practice and, with personalized insights and guidance, you can control the course of your health to live a more balanced life. The ring tracks all stages of sleep as well as recovery and accounts for daily activity to provide practical steps for long-term improvement. Founded in 2013, ŌURA Health is headquartered in Oulu, Finland, with offices in Helsinki, San Francisco, and San Diego. ŌURA has raised capital in the past from Lifeline Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Temasek, The Chernin Group, JAZZ Venture Partners, and MSD Capital, among others.

About Natural Cycles°

Natural Cycles° is a leading women’s health company that developed the world’s first birth control app, which has been used by millions of women around the world. As a Class II medical device, the NC°app is cleared by the FDA in the United States and certified to be used as a contraceptive in Europe, Australia, and Singapore. It has also received regulatory clearances to integrate with third-party wearables. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, users have access to and can switch between NC° Birth Control, NC° Plan Pregnancy, and NC° Follow Pregnancy modes within the app. NC°Birth Control’s clinical effectiveness and real-life effectiveness are proven to be 93% effective with typical use and 98% effective with perfect use. Founded in 2013 by Physicists Dr. Elina Berglund and Dr. Raoul Scherwitzl, Natural Cycles° is committed to pioneering women’s health with research and passion. The company’s on-staff research team has contributed to 14 peer-reviewed research papers.

Alimetry, a medical device and digital healthcare company, based in Auckland, received US Food and Drug Administration(FDA) clearance for Gastric Alimetry, a pioneering non-invasive medical device for aiding the diagnosis of gastric disorders. Alimetry also announced today the launch of Alimetry Inc., a subsidiary based in Minneapolis, MN, that will market and distribute Gastric Alimetry in the United States, according to a press release.

“Gastric Alimetry is an industry-first and genuine breakthrough in gut diagnostics,” said CEO Greg O’Grady, a Professor of Surgery and co-founder of Alimetry. “Alimetry’s unique technology harnesses the power of stretchable electronics, wearables, digital health, and cloud-based analytics to deliver a completely non-invasive solution. We are thrilled to announce FDA’s clearance of Gastric Alimetry, making this new test available to millions of Americans suffering from chronic gastric symptoms”.  

The Gastric Alimetry test is performed in a clinical setting. Recordings are taken before and after a meal, while patients simultaneously log their symptoms into the Gastric Alimetry App. The system performs a high-resolution recording of digestive patterns from the skin surface and delivers clinical reports via the cloud to inform the diagnosis of gastric diseases and support personalized therapy.  

Read more: Fitbit Gets US FDA Approval For Detecting AFib

The system is indicated for common stomach disorders including nausea and vomiting, gastroparesis, and functional dyspepsia, affecting over 8% of the world’s population, and costing billions of dollars in healthcare expenses. The test is also currently available in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.  

“Diagnosing gastric symptoms has been a deeply challenging clinical problem,” Dr. O’Grady said. “Existing tests are frequently unreliable and inconclusive, and patients may undergo months or even years of testing - often costly, invasive, or involving radiation - only to end in confusion and trial-and-error care. Gastric Alimetry is a game-changing tool that will bring improved clarity to the field, enabling enhanced clinical outcomes, and safer, more accessible, and less-invasive care.”

Gastric Alimetry is the result of a decade of world-leading science and innovation by an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, engineers, designers, and scientists. “FDA clearance of Gastric Alimetry cements Alimetry’s path to leadership in gastrointestinal wearables and non-invasive diagnostics,” Dr. O’Grady said. “Alimetry has an outstanding pipeline of innovation and this is the first plank in a series of innovative new features and products that stand to transform care in disorders of gastrointestinal function”. Gastric Alimetry will be available commercially from July 2023.

About Alimetry

Alimetry was spun-out of the University of Auckland in 2019 from a center of excellence in digestive diseases. The company was founded by Professor Gregory O’Grady, a gastrointestinal surgeon, and Dr. Armen Gharibans, on the background of a decade of award-winning science.

Today iRhythm Technologies, a leading digital healthcare solutions company focused on the advancement of cardiac care, announced it received FDA 510(k) clearance for its ZEUS (Zio ECG Utilization Software) System for the Zio Watch. Produced in partnership with Verily, an Alphabet precision health company, the ZEUS System combines deep learning algorithms with a proven and trusted cardiac arrhythmia service. The ZEUS System is the AI algorithm and solution component of the Zio® Watch: a sensor-based wearable for the noninvasive, clinical grade, long-term continuous monitoring of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Verily also received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Zio Watch (Study Watch with Irregular Pulse Monitor).

Read more: Fitbit Gets US FDA Approval For Detecting AFib

The Zio Watch with the ZEUS System is an integrated, prescription-based solution that addresses clinician workflows, care pathways, and the patient experience. The cleared Zio Watch is a wrist-worn solution that not only detects AFib, but also characterizes the amount of AFib over time, thus aiding a clinician in diagnosis. The Zio Watch uses a continuous photoplethysmography (PPG), an AI-based algorithm to detect AFib and calculate an AFib burden estimate. A preliminary report is then sent to the patient's clinician for review, potentially leading to a diagnosis and clinical interventions, according to a press release.

“We are incredibly excited about this important milestone as we make progress in bringing a new monitoring platform to patients who can benefit from it. There is a clear need in the market today for a clinical grade, long-term and noninvasive monitoring solution,” said Quentin Blackford, CEO and President of iRhythm. “iRhythm is focused on redefining the standard of care with earlier insight to predict and prevent disease, and the Zio Watch with ZEUS System provides clinicians a platform that has the potential to meaningfully improve patients’ lives.”

“Our partnership with iRhythm advances our shared mission of delivering more efficient care for patients with AFib,” said Dr. Jessica Mega, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, and Co-founder of Verily. “The industry is ripe for a clinical grade wearable to not only improve how we monitor cardiovascular health, but also develop precision health intervention that could ultimately prevent more serious cardiac events before they can occur.”

iRhythm has what is believed to be the world’s largest repository of labeled ECG data, which it leveraged to develop its proprietary PPG algorithm. Findings from the Verily Study: Watch AFib Detection At Home, revealed at HRS, show that interval-level sensitivity and specificity of the AFib Context Engine (ACE) algorithm within the ZEUS System were 93.6% and 99.1% respectively. Zio XT was used as a reference for computing performance. AFib episodes occurred in 30.4% of subjects, and the median AFib burden was 9.3%. The Zio Watch PPG-derived AFib burden estimate was an accurate measure when compared to the Zio XT reference. iRhythm's proprietary ACE algorithm utilizes a novel convolutional neural network architecture designed to operate on a cloud-enabled system compatible with a battery-constrained device. The results of ACE are presented in clinical preliminary reports summarizing AFib presence over the monitoring period. This process enables clinicians to receive clinically meaningful data on AFib presence/absence, rather than just a single data point in time.

“We’re proud to introduce a clinical-grade wearable that has the potential to fill an important gap in patient care by enabling the early detection and long-term monitoring of atrial fibrillation,” said Mark Day, Chief Technology Officer at iRhythm. “This technology is fundamental to growing a disruptive new monitoring platform for iRhythm.”

The Zio Watch will be complementary to Zio monitors by adding a modality with longer wear times for patients who require long-term monitoring in order to detect, characterize, and manage AFib. The Zio Watch is designed to be a cost-effective, noninvasive monitoring solution, and will fully integrate with the Zio service. iRhythm plans to introduce the ZEUS System for a limited market evaluation in 2023.

Disclaimer: The Zio Watch and the ZEUS System are not yet commercially available at this time and iRhythm will continue to build clinical research going into 2023.

About iRhythm Technologies, Inc.

iRhythm is a leading digital healthcare company redefining the way cardiac arrhythmias are clinically diagnosed. The company combines wearable biosensor devices worn for up to 14 days and cloud-based data analytics with powerful proprietary algorithms that distill data from millions of heartbeats into clinically actionable information. The company believes improvements in arrhythmia detection and characterization have the potential to change the clinical management of patients.

About Verily

Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet that is using a data-driven, people-first approach to change the way people manage their health and the way healthcare is delivered. Launched from Google X in 2015, Verily’s purpose is to bring the promise of precision health to everyone - every day. Verily is focused on generating and activating data from a wide variety of sources, including clinical, social, behavioral, and the real world, to arrive at the best solutions for a person based on a comprehensive view of the evidence. Verily uses its recognized expertise and capabilities in technology, data science, and healthcare to enable the entire healthcare ecosystem to drive better health outcomes.

InnovationLab, an expert in printed electronics "from lab to fab", announced its breakthrough in additive manufacturing of printed circuit boards (PCBs), helping to meet higher environmental standards for electronics production while also reducing costs.

Within the research project SmartEEs2, funded by Horizon 2020, InnovationLab and its partner ISRA have developed a novel manufacturing process for copper-based solderable circuits. The circuits are screen printed and are compatible with conventional reflow processes.

Read more: New Capacitor Could Enable Energy-Efficient Microchips

Producing printed electronics is an additive process that does not use toxic etchants, and runs at comparatively low temperatures of around 150oC, thus reducing energy consumption. Moreover, the substrates used in additive PCB manufacturing are up to 15 times thinner, compared to conventional techniques, which reduces material consumption and waste during the production process. For further information, see the IDTechEx report on 3D Electronics/Additive Electronics 2022-2032.

InnovationLab has so far produced a physical prototype, which includes all the important blocks of a smart label. It uses copper ink to ensure high conductivity. Component mounting can be done in a conventional reflow soldering process, which enables manufacturers to switch to the new technology without investing in new equipment.

Multilayer layer printing -metal and dielectric - was used to produce the target functionality: a low power temperature sensor and logger, an NFC communication interface via a printed antenna, and a compact battery that is charged from a printed solar cell, making the device completely self-sufficient. The new process can produce both standard and flexible PCBs with up to four layers and can be used in product and process development for hybrid electronics.

Dr. Janusz Schinke, Head of Printed Electronics at InnovationLab, said, "This is a state-of-the-art production process, which will decrease costs and reduce logistical dependencies on suppliers while delivering three key benefits for the environment: consuming fewer materials, using less energy, and producing less waste. By the end of this year, we expect to have scaled this process to high volumes, meeting customer demands of a million solderable tracks or more."

SmartEEs2 is a European project, which is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Its objective is to provide acceleration support to innovative companies for the integration of flexible and wearable electronics technologies, and thus help the European industry's competitiveness.

About InnovationLab

Founded in 2008, InnovationLab GmbH is a one-stop shop for printed electronics, with a focus on flexible pressure sensors, as well as temperature, moisture, and gas sensors, and the capability to design and produce fully integrated hardware/software systems. The company offers highly customized solutions and supports high-volume production at two manufacturing sites in Germany, providing hands-on support to its customers throughout the entire product value chain, from concept to bulk production of printed functional products. InnovationLab provides state-of-the-art infrastructure along with comprehensive expertise in materials, processes, and printing technologies to develop novel products. InnovationLab also supports numerous research and industrial partners at its lab and fabrication facility, an interdisciplinary environment featuring 6200 m2 of usable space for production, development, and offices, including 700 m2 of state-of-the-art cleanrooms.

A pioneering project, which aims to develop advanced sensors for usage in robotic systems, could transform prosthetics and robotic limbs. The research project is led by the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), Integrated Graphene Ltd, and supported by the Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering (SRPe) as well as the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland (NMIS) Industry Doctorate Programme in Advanced Manufacturing. It aims to develop sensors that provide enhanced capabilities to robots, helping improve their dexterity and motor skills, through the use of accurate pressure sensors which provide haptic feedback and distributed touch.

Read more: UC Berkeley Engineers Develop New Technique for Making Wearable Sensors

Professor Des Gibson, Director of the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors, and Imaging at UWS and project principal investigator, said: "Over recent years the advancements in the robotics industry have been remarkable, however, due to a lack of sensory capabilities, robotic systems often fail to execute certain tasks easily. For robots to reach their full potential, accurate pressure sensors, capable of providing greater tactile ability, are required. Our collaboration with Integrated Graphene Ltd, has led to the development of advanced pressure sensor technology, which could help transform robotic systems."

Made from 3D graphene foam, which offers unique capabilities when put under mechanical stress, the sensors use a piezoresistive approach - meaning when the material is put under pressure it dynamically changes its electric resistance, easily detecting and adapting to the range of pressure required, from light to heavy.

Marco Caffio, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Integrated Graphene said: "Gii, our novel 3D graphene foam, has the capability to mimic the sensitivity and feedback of human touch, which could have a transformative impact on how robotics can be used for a whole range of real-world applications from surgery to precision manufacturing. We know the unique property of Gii makes it suitable for use in other applications like disease diagnostics and energy storage, so we're always very excited to be able to demonstrate its flexibility in projects like this one."

Dr. Carlos Garcia Nunez, School of Computing Engineering and Physical Sciences at UWS added: "Within robotics and wearable electronics the use of pressure sensors is a vital element, to provide either an information input system, or to give robotic systems human-like motor skills. An advanced material like 3D graphene foam offers excellent potential for use in such applications, due to its outstanding electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Our work shines a light on the significant potential for this technology to revolutionize the robotics industry with dynamic pressure sensors."

The next stage of the project - funded by UWS, Integrated Graphene Ltd, SRPe, and NMIS - will look to further to increase sensitivity of the sensors, before developing them for wider use in robotic systems.

Amazon plans to expand its Amazon Care offering to include behavioral health services, as well as a partnership with digital mental health company Ginger.

The new service, which hasn't launched yet, will provide Amazon Care users on-demand access to mental health experts such as licensed therapists or psychiatrists, according to people familiar with the matter and a live website about the partnership. The website says Amazon Care's coordinators will be able to refer patients to "high-quality, in-network behavioral health providers whenever possible,” Reports BusinessInsider (Amazon Care Plans to Offer Mental Health Support and Partner With Ginger (businessinsider.com))

Ginger, best known for its virtual behavioral health therapy services, is expected to become available as an additional option to Amazon Care users. The two companies will share patient information, the website says: "Amazon Care makes behavioral health a priority for your workplace. Our primary care providers treat a range of common behavioral health concerns," (...) "We've also teamed up with Ginger, an on-demand mental healthcare platform, as an optional add-on to Amazon Care."

Read more: Fujitsu and Salesforce Team Up on Healthcare Solutions (Wearable technologies (wearable-technologies.com)

The Amazon Care Service originally started as a virtual clinic for in-house employees, the service has since expanded to external employers across the country. In February, Amazon reported that it would be adding personal assistance in more than 20 new cities this year, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.

But the tech and retail giant has a lot of ambitions in the healthcare space. Amazon announced this last month signed a definitive agreement to acquire hybrid primary care provider One Medical in a cash deal valued approximately $3.9 billion.

"Having a physical footprint with brick and mortar really helps expand their continuum of care," Sanjula Jain, senior vice president for market strategy and chief research officer at Trilliant Health, said on HIMSS TV. "Now being truly in the primary care space makes their earlier investments make a lot more sense. Now there's a way to actually integrate that into the care delivery process."

Ginger was founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs and data scientists at the MIT Media Lab. In October 2021 Ginger completed its merger with stress, sleep, and meditation app Headspace to form Headspace Health. Prior to the deal, the virtual mental health company had raised $100 million in a Series E funding round.

Researchers at the University of Washington say they have developed a first-of-its-kind flexible, wearable thermoelectric device that converts body heat to electricity, which offers a promising way to continuously power wearable electronics. The device, say the researchers, is soft and stretchable, yet sturdy and efficient — properties that can be challenging to combine.

“It’s a 100% gain if we harvest thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted to the surroundings,” says Mohammad Malakooti, a UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “Because we want to use that energy for self-powered electronics, a higher power density is needed. We leverage additive manufacturing to fabricate stretchable electronics, increase their efficiency and enable their seamless integration into wearables while answering fundamental research questions.”

Even after more than 15,000 stretching cycles at 30% strain, the prototype device remains fully functional, say the researchers – a highly desirable feature for wearable electronics and soft robotics. The device also shows a 6.5 times increase in power density compared to previous stretchable thermoelectric generators, reports Smart2Zero.

To create flexible devices, the researchers 3D-printed composites with engineered functional and structural properties at each layer. The filler material contained liquid metal alloys, which provide high electrical and thermal conductivity. These alloys address limitations in previous devices, including an inability to stretch, inefficient heat transfer, and a complex fabrication process.

The researchers also embedded hollow microspheres to direct the heat to the semiconductors at the core layer and reduce the weight of the device. The researchers showed that they could print these devices on stretchable textile fabrics and curved surfaces, which suggests that future devices could be applied to clothing and other objects.

“One unique aspect of our research is that it covers the whole spectrum, all the way from material synthesis to device fabrication and characterization,” says Malakooti, who is also a researcher at the UW’s Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. “This gives us the freedom to design new materials, engineer every step in the process, and be creative.”

Blue Spark Technologies Inc produces TempTraq, an FDA Cleared Class II medical device that gives Healthcare providers the first wireless continuous temperature monitor in the form of a soft, comfortable, disposable patch. TempTraq can significantly improve the way temperature is measured in the clinical environment and provides clinicians with a quicker, easier, and more effective way to measure temperature.

Accuracy and equivalency in three hospital studies:

• Cleveland Clinic
• University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center
• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital

In a clinical study conducted by University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, TempTraq was shown to detect temperature rises earlier than the standard of care by a median of 140.1 minutes (range of 30-180 minutes) with bone marrow transplant patients.

WT thinks this is what earns TempTraq the title “Innovation of the Month”.

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Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently announced that they have figured out how to engineer a biofilm that harvests the energy in evaporation and converts it to electricity. This biofilm, which was announced in Nature Communications, has the potential to revolutionize the world of wearable electronics, powering everything from personal medical sensors to personal electronics.

"This is a very exciting technology," says Xiaomeng Liu, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at UMass Amherst's College of Engineering and the paper's lead author. "It is really green energy, and unlike other so-called 'green-energy' sources, its production is totally green."

Read more: Dissolving Implantable DeviceRelieves Pain Without drugs

That's because this biofilm - a thin sheet of bacterial cells about the thickness of a sheet of paper - is produced naturally by an engineered version of the bacteria Geobacter sulfurreducens. G. sulfurreducens is known to produce electricity and has been used previously in "microbial batteries" to power electrical devices. But such batteries require that G. sulfurreducens is properly cared for and fed a constant diet. By contrast, this new biofilm, which can supply as much, if not more, energy than a comparably sized battery, works, and works continuously, because it is dead. And because it's dead, it doesn't need to be fed.

"It's much more efficient," says Derek Lovley, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology at UMass Amherst and one of the paper's senior authors. "We've simplified the process of generating electricity by radically cutting back on the amount of processing needed. We sustainably grow the cells in a biofilm, and then use that agglomeration of cells. This cuts the energy inputs makes everything simpler and widens the potential applications."

The secret behind this new biofilm is that it makes energy from the moisture on your skin. Though we daily read stories about solar power, at least 50% of the solar energy reaching the earth goes toward evaporating water. "This is a huge, untapped source of energy," says Jun Yao, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMass, and the paper's other senior author. Since the surface of our skin is constantly moist with sweat, the biofilm can"plugin" and convert the energy locked in evaporation into enough energy to power small devices.

"The limiting factor of wearable electronics," says Yao, "has always been the power supply. Batteries run down and have to be changed or charged. They are also bulky, heavy, and uncomfortable." But a clear, small, thin flexible biofilm that produces a continuous and steady supply of electricity and which can be worn, like a Band-Aid, as a patch applied directly to the skin, solves all these problems.

What makes this all work is that G. sulfurreducens grows in colonies that look like thin mats, and each of the individual microbes connects to its neighbors through a series of natural nanowires. The team then harvests these mats and uses a laser to etch small circuits into the films. Once the films are etched, they're sandwiched between electrodes and finally sealed in a soft, sticky, breathable polymer that you can apply directly to your skin. Once this tiny battery is "plugged in" by applying it to your body, it can power small devices.

"Our next step is to increase the size of our films to power more sophisticated skin-wearable electronics," says Yao, and Liu points out that one of the goals is to power entire electronic systems, rather than single devices.

This research was nurtured by the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS) at UMass Amherst, which combines deep and interdisciplinary expertise from 29 departments to translate fundamental research into innovations that benefit human health and well-being.

When a soldier is wounded in the battlefield, it becomes very difficult to give them proper care, because operating rooms are too far from the battlefield. Generally, the Wounded in Action are far more numerous than those killed.

A team of researchers from Purdue University and the Indiana University School of Medicine has developed an augmented reality (AR) telemedicine system that can be successfully used in very difficult and stressful situations. The researchers named their system ‘STAR’ (System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality), reports Purdue University.

Their study shows medics successfully performing surgery in life-like simulations of these war zones by receiving guidance from surgeons through an augmented reality headset. The work is joint with Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering and the Department of Computer Science.

Read more COVID-19 Pandemic Will Propel US Telehealth Market To Grow At A CAGR of Over 29% During 2019-25

The headset transmits a recorded view of the operating site to the surgeon, who can then use a large display touch screen to mark up the recording with drawings of how to complete the surgical procedure. Augmented reality helps the first responder see the surgeon’s annotated instructions directly on their view of the operating field.

Operating rooms across the U.S. have already started using AR telementoring to virtually bring in the expertise of other surgeons on how to use a new instrument or better perform a particular procedure.
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But this technology hasn’t made it to “austere” settings, such as a battlefield or forest thousands of miles away from a hospital, where a first responder could be treating injuries far too complex for their level of expertise, said Juan Wachs, Purdue University’s James A. and Sharon M. Tompkins Rising Star Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering.

“Augmented reality telementoring doesn’t usually operate well in extreme scenarios. Too much smoke can prevent visual sensors from working, for example,” Wachs said.

The study evaluated first responders using STAR to perform on a patient simulator a common procedure that opens up a blocked airway, called a cricothyroidotomy. Even the responders with no or little experience performing this procedure prior to the study successfully operated after receiving instructions from surgeons through STAR.

Read more Philips Healthcare Signs Deal with US Air Force for Remote Patient Monitoring

The simulations took place both indoors and outdoors, including smoke and sounds of gunshots, explosions and helicopters. The researchers found that first responders more successfully performed the cricothyroidotomies with STAR than with just hearing a surgeon’s voice for each of these scenarios. If smoke made the visualization too unreliable, the responders could still do the operation when STAR automatically switched to audio-only telementoring.

On Monday, the Google-owned wearable brand Fitbit received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its new health feature that can detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) — a health tool that made the Apple Watch highly popular and which has saved several lives in the past.

You’ve got rhythm, but is it irregular?

AFib is a form of irregular heart rhythm that affects nearly 33.5 million people globally, and individuals with AFib have five times higher risk of stroke. Unfortunately, AFib can be challenging to detect as there are often no symptoms, and episodes can come and go.

Fitbit’s new PPG AFib algorithm can passively assess your heart rhythm in the background while you’re still or asleep. Suppose there’s anything that might be suggestive of AFib. In that case, you’ll be notified through its Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications feature — allowing you to talk with your healthcare provider or seek further assessment to help prevent a significant medical event, such as stroke, reports Google.

So how does PPG AFib detection work?

When your heart beats, tiny blood vessels throughout your body expand and contract based on changes in blood volume. Fitbit’s PPG optical heart-rate sensor can detect these volume changes right from your wrist. These measurements determine your heart rhythm, which the detection algorithm then analyzes for irregularities and potential signs of atrial fibrillation.

The clinical validation for Fitbit’s PPG algorithm is supported by data from the landmark Fitbit Heart Study, which launched in 2020 and enrolled 455,699 participants over five months. The study was conducted entirely virtually during the pandemic, making it one of the largest remote studies of PPG-based software to date. Data presented at the 2021 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions found that the Fitbit PPG detections correctly identified AFib episodes 98% of the time, as confirmed by ECG patch monitors.

Because AFib can be so sporadic, the optimal way to screen for it is through heart rate tracking technology when the body is still or at rest — making overnight detection when people are asleep especially important. The unique capabilities of Fitbit devices — especially its 24/7 heart rate tracking and long battery life — give it the potential to accelerate identification through long-term heart rhythm assessment.

All the ways to monitor heart health with Fitbit

With today’s FDA clearance of the PPG-based algorithm, Fitbit now provides two ways to detect AFib. Fitbit’s ECG app, which takes a spot-check approach, allows you to proactively screen yourself for possible AFib and record an ECG trace that you can then review with a healthcare provider. Additionally, the new PPG-based algorithm allows for long-term heart rhythm assessment that helps identify asymptomatic AFib that could otherwise go undetected.

The Fitbit PPG-based algorithm and Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications feature will soon be available to consumers in the U.S. across a range of heart-rate-enabled devices.

“We want to make AFib detection as accessible as possible to help reduce the risk of potentially life-threatening events — like stroke — and ultimately improve overall heart health for everyone. We’ll continue to work with the BMS-Pfizer Alliance to develop educational content for patients and healthcare providers that will help identify and support people in the U.S. with irregular heart rhythms consistent with atrial fibrillation,” Google said.

Blood pressure is one of the most important indicators of heart health, but it’s tough to frequently and reliably measure outside of a clinical setting. For decades, cuff-based devices that constrict around the arm to give a reading have been the gold standard. But now, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have developed an electronic tattoo that can be worn comfortably on the wrist for hours and deliver continuous blood pressure measurements at an accuracy level exceeding nearly all available options on the market today.

“Blood pressure is the most important vital sign you can measure, but the methods to do it outside of the clinic passively, without a cuff, are very limited,” said Deji Akinwande, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin and one of the co-leaders of the project, which is documented in a new paper published today in Nature Nanotechnology.

High blood pressure can lead to serious heart conditions if left untreated. It can be hard to capture with a traditional blood pressure check because that only measures a moment in time - a single data point.

“Taking infrequent blood pressure measurements has many limitations, and it does not provide insight into exactly how our body is functioning,” said Roozbeh Jafari, a professor of biomedical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering at Texas A&M and the other co-leader of the project.

The continuous monitoring of the e-tattoo allows for blood pressure measurements in all kinds of situations: at times of high stress, while sleeping, exercising, etc. It can deliver thousands of measurements more than any device so far, reports UT Austin.

Mobile health monitoring has taken major leaps in recent years, primarily due to technology such as smartwatches. These devices use metallic sensors that get readings based on LED light sources shined through the skin.

However, leading smartwatches are not yet ready for blood pressure monitoring. That’s because the watches slide around on the wrist and might be far from arteries, making it hard to deliver accurate readings. And the light-based measurements can falter in people with darker skin tones and/or larger wrists.

Graphene is one of the strongest and thinnest materials in existence, and it is a key ingredient in the e-tattoo. It is similar to graphite found in pencils, but the atoms are precisely arranged into thin layers. E-tattoos make sense as a vehicle for mobile blood pressure monitoring because they reside in a sticky, stretchy material encasing the sensors that are comfortable to wear for long periods and do not slide around.

“The sensor for the tattoo is weightless and unobtrusive. You place it there. You don’t even see it, and it doesn’t move,” Jafari said. “You need the sensor to stay in the same place because if you happen to move it around, the measurements are going to be different.”

Read more: Dissolving Implantable Device Relieves Pain Without Drugs

The device takes its measurements by shooting an electrical current into the skin and then analyzing the body’s response, which is known as bioimpedance. There is a correlation between bioimpedance and changes in blood pressure that has to do with blood volume changes. However, the correlation is not particularly obvious, so the team had to create a machine learning model to analyze the connection to get accurate blood pressure readings.

In medicine, cuff-less blood pressure monitoring is the “holy grail,” Jafari said, but there isn’t a viable solution on the market yet. It’s part of a larger push in medicine to use technology to untether patients from machines while collecting more data wherever they are, allowing them to go from room to room, clinic to clinic, and still get personalized care.

“All this data can help create a digital twin to model the human body, to predict and show how it might react and respond to treatments over time,” Akinwande said.

Team members on the project include Dmitry Kireev and Neelotpala Kumar of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UT Austin; Kaan Sel and Bassem Ibrahim of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M; and Ali Akbari of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M. The research was supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

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A Northwestern University-led team of researchers has developed a small, soft, flexible implant that relieves pain on demand and without the use of drugs. The first-of-its-kind device could provide a much-needed alternative to opioids and other highly addictive medications.

The biocompatible, water-soluble device works by softly wrapping around nerves to deliver precise, targeted cooling, which numbs nerves and blocks pain signals to the brain. An external pump enables the user to remotely activate the device and then increase or decrease its intensity. After the device is no longer needed, it naturally absorbs into the body — bypassing the need for surgical extraction.

The researchers believe the device will be most valuable for patients who undergo routine surgeries or even amputations that commonly require post-operative medications. Surgeons could implant the device during the procedure to help manage the patient’s post-operative pain, reports Northwestern University.

“Although opioids are extremely effective, they also are extremely addictive,” said Northwestern’s John A. Rogers, who led the device’s development. “As engineers, we are motivated by the idea of treating pain without drugs — in ways that can be turned on and off instantly, with user control over the intensity of relief. The technology reported here exploits mechanisms that have some similarities to those that cause your fingers to feel numb when cold. Our implant allows that effect to be produced in a programmable way, directly and locally to targeted nerves, even those deep within surrounding soft tissues.”

A bioelectronics pioneer, Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurological Surgery in the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He also is the founding director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics. Jonathan Reeder, a former postdoctoral fellow in Rogers’ laboratory, is the paper’s first author.

How it works

Although the new device might sound like science fiction, it leverages a simple, common concept that everyone knows: evaporation. Similar to how evaporating sweat cools the body, the device contains a liquid coolant that is induced to evaporate at the specific location of a sensory nerve.

“As you cool down a nerve, the signals that travel through the nerve become slower and slower — eventually stopping completely,” said study co-author Dr. Matthew MacEwan of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “We are specifically targeting peripheral nerves, which connect your brain and your spinal cord to the rest of your body. These are the nerves that communicate sensory stimuli, including pain. By delivering a cooling effect to just one or two targeted nerves, we can effectively modulate pain signals in one specific region of the body.”

Read more: Study Finds VR Therapeutic Reduces Pain Intensity

To induce the cooling effect, the device contains tiny microfluidic channels. One channel contains the liquid coolant (perfluorobutane), which is already clinically approved as an ultrasound contrast agent and for pressurized inhalers. A second channel contains dry nitrogen, an inert gas. When the liquid and gas flow into a shared chamber, a reaction occurs that causes the liquid to promptly evaporate. Simultaneously, a tiny integrated sensor monitors the temperature of the nerve to ensure that it’s not getting too cold, which could cause tissue damage.

“Excessive cooling can damage the nerve and the fragile tissues around it,” Rogers said. “The duration and temperature of the cooling must therefore be controlled precisely. By monitoring the temperature at the nerve, the flow rates can be adjusted automatically to set a point that blocks pain in a reversible, safe manner.”

Precision power

While other cooling therapies and nerve blockers have been tested experimentally, all have limitations that the new device overcomes. Previously researchers have explored cryotherapies, for example, which are injected with a needle. Instead of targeting specific nerves, these imprecise approaches cool large areas of tissue, potentially leading to unwanted effects such as tissue damage and inflammation.

At its widest point, Northwestern’s tiny device is just 5 millimeters wide. One end is curled into a cuff that softly wraps around a single nerve, bypassing the need for sutures. By precisely targeting only the affected nerve, the device spares surrounding regions from unnecessary cooling, which could lead to side effects.

“You don’t want to inadvertently cool other nerves or the tissues that are unrelated to the nerve transmitting the painful stimuli,” MacEwan said. “We want to block the pain signals, not the nerves that control motor function and enable you to use your hand, for example.”

Previous researchers also have explored nerve blockers that use electrical stimulation to silence painful stimuli. These, too, have limitations.

“You can’t shut down a nerve with electrical stimulation without activating it first,” MacEwan said. “That can cause additional pain or muscle contractions and is not ideal, from a patient’s perspective.”

Disappearing act

This new technology is the third example of bioresorbable electronic devices from the Rogers lab, which introduced the concept of transient electronics in 2012, published in Science. In 2018, Rogers, MacEwan, and colleagues demonstrated the world’s first bioresorbable electronic device — a biodegradable implant that speeds nerve regeneration, published in Nature Medicine. Then, in 2021, Rogers and colleagues introduced a transient pacemaker, published in Nature Biotechnology.

All components of the devices are biocompatible and naturally absorb into the body’s biofluids over the course of days or weeks, without needing surgical extraction. The bioresorbable devices are completely harmless — similar to absorbable stitches.

At the thickness of a sheet of paper, the soft, elastic nerve cooling device is ideal for treating highly sensitive nerves.

“If you think about soft tissues, fragile nerves, and a body that’s in constant motion, any interfacing device must have the ability to flex, bend, twist, and stretch easily and naturally,” Rogers said. “Furthermore, you would like the device to simply disappear after it is no longer needed, to avoid delicate and risky procedures for surgical removal.”

The study was published in the July 1 issue of the journal Science.

The silicon-based computer chips that power our modern devices require vast amounts of energy to operate. Despite ever-improving computing efficiency, information technology is projected to consume around 25% of all primary energy produced by 2030. Researchers in the microelectronics and materials sciences communities are seeking ways to sustainably manage the global need for computing power.

The holy grail for reducing this digital demand is to develop microelectronics that operate at much lower voltages, which would require less energy and is a primary goal of efforts to move beyond today’s state-of-the-art CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor)devices.

Non-silicon materials with enticing properties for memory and logic devices exist; but their common bulk form still requires large voltages to manipulate, making them incompatible with modern electronics. Designing thin-film alternatives that not only perform well at low operating voltages but can also be packed into microelectronic devices remains a challenge.

Now, a team of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have identified one energy-efficient route – by synthesizing a thin-layer version of a well-known material whose properties are exactly what’s needed for next-generation devices.

First discovered more than 80 years ago, barium titanate (BaTiO3) found use in various capacitors for electronic circuits, ultrasonic generators, transducers, and even sonar.

Crystals of the material respond quickly to a small electric field, flip-flopping the orientation of the charged atoms that make up the material in a reversible but permanent manner even if the applied field is removed. This provides a way to switch between the proverbial “0” and“1” states in logic and memory storage devices – but still requires voltages larger than 1,000 millivolts (mV) for doing so.

Seeking to harness these properties for use in microchips, the Berkeley Lab-led team developed a pathway for creating films of BaTiO3 just 25 nanometers thin – less than a thousandth of a human hair’s width – whose orientation of charged atoms, or polarization, switches as quickly and efficiently as in the bulk version.

Read more: FraunhoferISE Develops World's Most Efficient Solar Cell

“We’ve known about BaTiO3 for the better part of a century and we’ve known how to make thin films of this material for over 40 years. But until now, nobody could make a film that could get close to the structure or performance that could be achieved in bulk,” said Lane Martin, a faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at Berkeley Laband professor of materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley who led the work.

Did You Know?

Berkeley Lab’s “Beyond Moore’s Law” initiative aims to identify pathways to ultra-low-power logic in memory elements. “We need to get to low-voltage operation since that is what scales the energy,” said co-author Ramamoorthy Ramesh, a senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab and professor of physics and materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley. “This work demonstrated, for the first time, the switching field of the model material, BaTiO3 with voltages lower than 100 mV, on a relevant platform.”

Historically, synthesis attempts have resulted in films that contain higher concentrations of “defects” – points where the structure differs from an idealized version of the material – as compared to bulk versions. Such a high concentration of defects negatively impacts the performance of thin films. Martin and colleagues developed an approach to growing the films that limit those defects. The findings were published in the journal Nature Materials.

To understand what it takes to produce the best, low-defect BaTiO3 thin films, the researchers turned to a process called pulsed-laser deposition. Firing a powerful beam of an ultraviolet laser light onto a ceramic target of BaTiO3 causes the material to transform into a plasma, which then transmits atoms from the target onto a surface to grow the film.“It’s a versatile tool where we can tweak a lot of knobs in the film’s growth and see which are most important for controlling the properties,” said Martin.

Martin and his colleagues showed that their method could achieve precise control over the deposited film’s structure, chemistry, thickness, and interfaces with metal electrodes. By chopping each deposited sample in half and looking at its structure atom by atom using tools at the National Center for Electron Microscopy at Berkeley Lab’s MolecularFoundry, the researchers revealed a version that precisely mimicked an extremely thin slice of the bulk.

“It’s fun to think that we can take these classic materials that we thought we knew everything about, and flip them on their head with new approaches to making and characterizing them,” said Martin.

Finally, by placing a film of BaTiO3 in between two metal layers, Martin and his team created tiny capacitors – the electronic components that rapidly store and release energy in a circuit. Applying voltages of 100 mV or less and measuring the current that emerges showed that the film’s polarization switched within two billionths of a second and could potentially be faster – competitive with what it takes for today’s computers to access memory or perform calculations.

The work follows the bigger goal of creating materials with small switching voltages and examining how interfaces with the metal components necessary for devices impact such materials. “This is a good early victory in our pursuit of low-power electronics that go beyond what is possible with silicon-based electronics today,” said Martin.

“Unlike our new devices, the capacitors used in chips today don’t hold their data unless you keep applying a voltage,” said Martin. And current technologies generally work at 500 to 600 mV, while a thin film version could work at 50 to 100 mV or less. Together, these measurements demonstrate a successful optimization of voltage and polarization robustness – which tend to be a trade-off, especially in thin materials.

Next, the team plans to shrink the material down even thinner to make it compatible with real devices in computers and study how it behaves at those tiny dimensions. At the same time, they will work with collaborators at companies such as Intel Corp. to test the feasibility in first-generation electronic devices. “If you could make each logic operation in a computer a million times more efficient, think how much energy you save. That’s why we’re doing this,” said Martin.

This research was supported by the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. The Molecular Foundry is a DOEOffice of Science user facility at Berkeley Lab.

Enara Health, the holistic weight management platform that is building a healthcare network to scale medical obesity treatment announced today $6M in seed funding led by Offline.VC and with Charge.VC, Crossover.VC, Continuum.VC, VSC Ventures, and notable angels including Raj Kapoor, Kevin Mahaffey, and Matt Brezina. Combined, these investors bring experience in top companies such as Tonal, Lyft, ClassPass, and FitMob. The funds will be used to scale Enara's medical obesity treatment and expand its current network of 30 healthcare providers and specialists.

Related: HealthBeats Raises US$3M Seed Funding To Expand Remote Vitals Monitoring

Obesity is a silent epidemic that, despite being a top health issue around the world, is consistently neglected and stigmatized in the medical field. More than 110 million American adults have obesity. Obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes are among the leading causes of 2.8 million preventable deaths annually. Obesity was one of the leading risk factors for COVID 19 hospitalizations and death. CDC models estimate that, between March and November of 2020, 30.2% of Covid-related hospitalizations were attributed to obesity.

Designed to be judgment-free, without diets, fads, or surgery, Enara's program intervenes at precision moments in a patient's weight loss journey to find the right therapy at the right time. It uses data and emerging science to custom design user programs, focusing on the whole person and considering factors such as sleep, stress, mood, metabolic profiles, and physical activity.

“I was desperate after I was fat-shamed by two healthcare professionals,'' says Enara user Rose Payán. “Although I had maintained a 40lb weight loss for four years, and an overall 80lb weight loss for over 10 years, it was not considered enough by my medical specialist. Fortunately, my search for a weight loss program led me to Enara. I listened to Dr. Bailony's Ted Talk on the many factors contributing to weight loss and new medical advances in weight management and cried as I saw there was hope. Enara's holistic approach made me feel seen as a complete person and supported in my health journey. They immediately connected me to a slew of resources to help me build healthy habits, which helped me lose and keep off 40 pounds, and most importantly get my diabetes under control.”

Unlike other weight loss digital health programs, Enara partners with healthcare systems and clinics to run their own obesity programs. With Enara, clinics can equip their patients, who may otherwise experience fragmented care, with a full-service ecosystem of care from medication, nutrition guides, lifestyle changes, behavioral health, exercise regimen, stress management practices, and much more. By integrating obesity treatment at the point of care, medical providers can reach high-risk patients, such as those at risk of heart disease, and those left behind by the direct-to-consumer weight loss market. Enara aims to change the culture within medical clinics to address obesity in a holistic, shame-free way.

“Weight management journeys shouldn't be so isolating, Enara understands this intimately,” says Dr. Hassan Kafri, Cardiovascular Specialist and founder of Kafri Hearth and Vascular Clinic near San Diego, CA. “Their holistic, network-led approach takes into account so much more than the average weight loss program, they're focused on long-term results, and from what I've seen with my patients, they're exceeding expectations.”

Of the more than 2,400 people that have gone through Enara's program, the average patient has had 41 pounds or more sustained weight loss 18 months into the program and beyond.

“Society continues to believe that obesity is a lifestyle choice and people spend hundreds of millions of dollars on new diets, supplements, and programs trying to lose weight,” said Rami Bailony, co-founder and CEO of Enara. “When people regain weight or fail to lose weight this leads to a cycle of frustration, self-blame, and guilt. This cycle needs to stop. That's why Enara is building a platform to help clinics offer multidisciplinary obesity programs that are data-driven, stigma-free, and accessible.”

Bailony began his career as an internal medicine physician where he witnessed firsthand the gap in obesity care and the inadvertent shame healthcare inflicts on its patients. He set out to create an alternative model that was evidence-based and shame-free.

Until recently, bariatric, or weight loss, surgery was considered the most effective way to lose significant weight. Non-surgical methods, from prescription medication to fad diets, often prescribed and practiced in isolation, do not holistically treat patients to create sustainable habits and yield long-lasting results. Enara has been able to build a multi-disciplinary program that combines different non-surgical interventions. By doing so, it has been able to produce long-term weight loss results that previously had only been seen with sleeve gastrectomy (commonly referred to as stomach stapling).

After developing a multi disciplinary-program, Bailony teamed up with Felipe Baytelman (former lead engineer at Classpass) and Lydia Alexander (VP of Obesity Medicine Association) to build a platform and network to scale.

Within 12 months, the team built a platform that helps medical groups and health partners launch insurance-covered obesity programs that offer a network of caring medical providers, nutritionists, and exercise specialists to users.  Enara's partner clinics and medical providers work with insurance to cover the cost of the program. The platform accepts a wide array of options, including Anthem BlueCross, BlueCross BlueShield, Cigna, Humana, UnitedHealthcare, and Medicare.  

About Enara

Enara Health is a multi disciplinary-platform that offers 360-degree care to members struggling with obesity. The all-in-one platform caters to physicians and provides personalized weight loss to patients. Their “doctor in the loop” method, combined with precision weight loss management, helps users lose weight and keep it off.