Smartwatch can the medication significantly improve Naturopathy naturopathy specialist portal
Personalized medication via Smartwatch
The possibilities of digital technologies in the medical sector has only recently discovered. As Smartwatches could be used for, according to a recent study of a Otimierung of the medication by in real time, the drug level in the body is measured.
Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and the Stanford School of Medicine have shown in their new study that the drug levels can be tracked in the body with the help of a custom-designed Smartwatch will be available in real-time. On the basis of the weld is measured, the concentration of the active ingredients. So the resource could be optimally adapted to the respective patients. Has the research been published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS).
Drug, so far, in unit dosages
To this day, drugs are prescribed mostly in unit dosages, wherein guidelines for factors such as weight and age of the persons Concerned serve as a guide. But in addition to these basic distinguishing characteristics of the individual’s body is shaped chemical by continuous fluctuations. And in addition to these dynamic factors, the genetic equipment of each individual is unique, so responses to drugs may vary, explain the researchers.
How quickly medicines are absorbed, how fast you work and how quickly they are excreted in the case of an individual, therefore remains unclear. A personalization of the medication dosage, it is hard and strong from repeated blood draws in the hospital-dependent, the researchers continue. This is to cumbersome, time-consuming, invasive, and expensive. Therefore, the personalization of successes so far, only a small sub-group of patients, and only on rare occasions.
Drugs in the sweat is undetectable
“We wanted to develop a portable technology that can track the profile of the medication in the body continuously and non-invasively,” says study leader Sam Emaminejad of the UCLA. It was already known that many different active ingredients of drugs to land because of their small molecular sizes in the weld and that the concentrations in sweat to those of the in the body circulating active substance is often very close to, report the researchers.
Based on this Knowledge, they have developed a Smartwatch that is equipped with a Sensor that analyzes the droplets of tiny Sweat. In further experiments, they traced the effect of the painkiller Paracetamol to individuals over a period of a few hours.
Electro-chemical signature of the substance detected
For the use of the Smartwatch, you stimulated first, the sweat glands on the wrist by Applying a small electric current, so that it was possible to detect changes in body chemistry, without the test persons had to come through the movement of sweat. The Sensor they could make it so that he’s looking for the unique electro-chemical signature of a substance and its concentration is recorded.
Optimum dosage at the optimum time
“This technology is a milestone on the path to personalized medicine,” says Co-author Professor Ronald W. Davis of Stanford Medical School. The special feature of the new technology is the ability to detect the unique electro-chemical Signal of a drug against the Background of the signals of many other molecules that may not circulate in the body and in higher concentrations than the drug is available, exactly it is, complements the main author Shuyu Lin from UCLA. With the help of the Smartwatch it is possible to determine the optimal dose and the optimal time of ingestion for each patient and each patient. (fp)
