Microchips are the future of medicine
For several decades, microchips have completely transformed consumer electronics, providing the appearance of a huge number of devices, ranging from electronic watches and pocket calculators to portable computers and digital music players.
The specialists of the Microsystems Technology Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working under the guidance of the head of the laboratory Anantha Chandrakasan, claim that the next generation of products of this electronic revolution will be biomedical devices. In particular, researchers are working on creating tiny low-power chips for diagnosing heart disorders, as well as monitoring the condition of patients with Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. Such devices, suitable for implantation or permanent wear, can not only change the approaches practiced by doctors, but also reduce the cost of diagnosis.
A key component of such devices is an ultra-low-power chip developed by the authors, which provides the relationship between miniature medical monitors and biosensors, as well as various devices necessary for signal processing and information output.
The ultimate goal of the researchers' work is to develop a chip on the basis of which it will be possible to create a device for simultaneous monitoring of a whole range of vital signs, including heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and body temperature. They are currently working on a microchip designed to register and record an electrocardiogram.
Doctors often prescribe Holter monitoring to patients with various heart diseases – continuous recording of an electrocardiogram for a day or more. In such cases, a monitor is attached to the patient's chest with several electrodes, and a battery is attached to the hip. This device is not only not very convenient, but also does not allow you to save a sufficiently large amount of information.
The miniature monitor developed by the authors has the shape of the letter L, the length of each side of which is about 10 centimeters. This device, which has no external wires and consumes only two milliwatts, attaches to the chest and does not interfere with human life. The built-in flash memory card allows you to register an electrocardiogram for two weeks. In the future, the developers hope to improve the device by teaching it to use the energy produced by the human body, which will eliminate the need to use a battery.
Doctors can use the data obtained with the help of the new monitor to predict the condition of patients. Specialists of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have already developed a computer algorithm that allows, based on electrocardiogram data, to assess the risk of death of patients with cardiovascular diseases. Currently, such an analysis can be carried out after downloading the data recorded on the chip to a computer, however, according to the developers, in the future the chip itself will process the information. It is possible that the chip will even be able to warn the patient with a sound signal about the high risk of a heart attack, as well as identify the risk of other possible problems, on the basis of which doctors will be able to carry out the necessary diagnostic procedures in a timely manner, change the treatment protocol, or resort to surgical interventions.
The start of testing of the first prototype of such an electrocardiogram monitor on healthy volunteers is scheduled for this spring.
New directionsIn addition to miniature monitors designed for continuous wear, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on the creation of implantable electronics for medical monitoring.
The main problem facing them is to provide continuous power to devices without using batteries that need regular recharging. To solve this problem, Associate Professor Joel Dawson suggests using ultracapacitors that do not wear out over time, which happens with batteries. The ultimate goal of his work is to create a device the size of a grain of rice to register tremors and involuntary tremors of patients with Parkinson's disease.
Other projects that Microsystems Technology Laboratory specialists are working on include the development of miniature ultrasound devices, as well as microchips of the "laboratory on a chip" type designed to analyze the composition of biological fluids. They are also looking for optimal approaches to the wireless transmission of information recorded by wearable or implantable devices to mobile phones or computers.
Experts believe that the potential of biomedical electronics is so great that today people are not even able to fully assess its scale and that in the future we will use devices that today seem to us science fiction. A clear example of such incredible progress is mobile phones, which not so long ago people could only dream of, and now they are already using them not only for communication, but also for listening to music, reading books, working on the Internet and many other purposes.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of MIT: Revolutionizing medicine, one chip at a time.
18.03.2010