Applications of Our Wearable
Core Body Temperature Sensor
Through more than 80 customer discovery calls, we have uncovered more than a dozen applications that could benefit from our wearable internal temperature sensor. Here are just a few examples of problems we’ve encountered that current technologies don’t fully address.
Brain Temperature Monitoring
The Problem
NIH guidelines recommend constantly monitoring brain temperature in the critical ICU hours immediately after a stroke, brain injury, or for newborns with poor blood flow. Elevated temperature during this period will cause additional brain injury resulting in death or lifelong disabilities that could have been avoided.
Today, the only way to monitor brain temperature is invasive, by inserting a catheter into the bladder. Measuring internal body temperature in the bladder is often not accurate nor responsive, lagging actual brain temperature. This forces more conservative and less effective cooling treatment.
Our Solution
In contrast, LumenAstra’s non-invasive, wearable sensor provides direct real-time brain measurements enabling precise temperature control and more aggressive cooling while providing critical early warning before additional damage can take place.
Tumor Hyperthermia
The Problem
Heating tumors makes them more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation, reducing the needed dosage while improving outcomes and lessening debilitating side effects. Today, the only way to measure and control tumor temperature during treatment is to insert sensor-tipped needles through the skin into the tumor.
The PROBLEM is… these needles often mis-represent the overall tumor temperature, resulting in either burning healthy tissue or not reaching the therapeutic target temperature. Patients undergoing treatment can expect to have these painful and invasive needle-sensors inserted twice a week over months of treatment. As a result, this technique is only offered at a few locations in the U.S.
Our Solution
LumenAstra’s wearable sensor replaces existing inaccurate and invasive procedures with reliable, accurate and non-invasive monitoring. This promotes aggressive heating of the tumor, without the risk of burning healthy tissue.
With effective temperature control, studies have shown that overall recovery rates increase by 20-40%. (Hospital University of Zurich)
Heat Stress
The Problem
According to the CDC, more than 2000 people in the U.S. die from heat-related incidents each year including high school football players and first responders due to strenuous physical exertion. The US Military considers heat stroke a significant problem to its 1.3 million active duty personnel because of degraded performance, permanent brain function impairment, or even death.
Our Solution
Heat stress and heat stroke were the original serious problems expressed by the US Military to Zoya’s Lab. Our resulting sensor technology was designed with the intention of miniaturizing the capability to a wearable form factor with very low power consumption and the ability to communicate warnings to either the wearer or to a field readiness monitor.