Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KAM Patch (KAM Patch, the Smart Sweat Patch: a breakthrough platform for hydration monitoring)

Teaser

Kamleon is a spin-off company from the University Rovira & Virgili, based on a strong science foundation currently located in Barcelona, Spain, that focuses on developing user-centered technologies that are capable of monitoring a wide range of human biochemical parameters in...

Summary

Kamleon is a spin-off company from the University Rovira & Virgili, based on a strong science foundation currently located in Barcelona, Spain, that focuses on developing user-centered technologies that are capable of monitoring a wide range of human biochemical parameters in real-time through non-invasive, ultra-low cost and robust technologies.
The company is currently focused on developing sensors to monitor dehydration - an imbalance of water, the most essential nutrient in the human body - that is a silent threat affecting the health and wellbeing of a large fraction of the world population. Precisely, vulnerable groups such as children, elderly, pregnant and breastfeeding women, athletes or outdoor workers present the highest prevalence resulting in associated acute and long-term health risks. In fact, elderly people over 65 years old have been reported with an incidence of 81 % representing 1 of the top 10 causes of for more frequent hospitalization and being 1 of the 5 most expensive with 6,140 € x hospitalizations cost. This has been estimated with a preventable economic cost of 1.8 € B annually (Xiao et al., (2004). Economic burden of dehydration among hospitalized elderly patients. Am J Health Syst Pharm, 61(23), 2534-2540) and is forecasted to double as the aging population over 60 years will increase double from 12% to 22% in 2050 (Global life sciences outlook: Thriving in today’s uncertain market. Deloitte LLP, 2017).

Interestingly, poor educational habits driven by the lack of suitable tools and reliable information to monitor the hydration status stands as the major problems to overcome this health issue. In this sense, the objectives of the present project were:
● Define a clear go-to-market development roadmap by exploring and defining the value proposition for monitoring dehydration - specifically in the most vulnerable groups -
● Advance and refine the technological development of embedded biochemical technologies to monitor dehydration.
● Build a solid business case that can sustain the technological development into a profitable and scalable business while impacting to society.

It is clear that with the increasing aging population there is an urgent need to explore novel solutions capable to raise awareness, prevent and better monitor the status of dehydration. Solutions that can be extremely simple to help people to minimize the risk of dehydration and help to make personalized hydration recommendation, thus improving their quality of life and producing a positive social and economic impact on the short- and long-term public health.

Work performed

This project started from a clear need that exists in the market, which was the development of novel technologies to decentralise biochemical analysis from the laboratory for a better preventive and diagnosis hydration system, particularly in the most severe target group -elderly population-.
Specifically, we started with the development and refinement of an epidermal sweat patch. The initial goal was to develop an advanced ergonomic patch prototype with flexible electronic components for better adaptation into the human motion.
Nonetheless, while exploring and refining the value proposition of the initial proposal - the sweat patch - , we identified another product-related unmet clinical need that together with a lower competitive landscape, a faster got-to-market development roadmap and the versatility of our technology brought the opportunity to embed our sensors into diapers to effortlessly monitor basic urine analysis.

In that sense, due to the application shift some technological development challenges needed to be considered:
· Adapt and improve the cost and performance of the absorbent cellulose-based sensors incorporated in the diaper with dual function; I) absorbing the urine correctly while maintain a linear range and excellent sensitivity, II) monitoring the urine volume.
· Optimization of new sensing interfaces capable to be seamlessly integrated into the diaper by facilitating the sampling, transmission and analysis of the data.
· Preliminary integration of different electrochemical techniques such as chemiresistors or Ion selective electrodes to assess urine biomarkers.

Therefore, it is viable to think that the most appropriate solution for this project is based on the capacity to seamlessly integrate flexible and stretchable sensors and perform basic real-time urine analysis to monitor both urine volume and its different biomarkers including sodium (Na + ), potassium (K + ), urinary pH and urinary creatinine to transmit real-time information to potential end-users such caregivers in a simple, robust and affordable manner.

Overall the two main results of the present project has been:
● Re-define and validate the value proposition for assessing dehydration in smart diapers supported by a business case.
● Development and optimization of biosensing technology to be embedded within diapers.

Final results

The present project represents a breakthrough respect the state of the art in comparison with the technology used to monitor dehydration. In fact, today for accurately and reliably assess dehydration most of the methods present several limitations such as it require collection and analysis in the laboratory performed by trained staff which are tedious, time consuming, inasvie, expensive and complex. Therefore the solutions presented in this project has achieved the following:
- Exponential reduction of the cost (x100) by combining different nanotechnology and printing techniques that allow to turn commodity materials into biosensing interfaces.
- Easy to use technology that is extremely simple and intuitive.
- Maintain a good analytical performance that is important in order to obtain valid and reliable information.
Furthermore our goal is to develop a health platform and expand our urinalysis beyond dehydration which is already one of the top 10 causes for hospitalization in elderly population and is 1 of the 5 most expensive with 6,140 € x hospitalization. By including other sensors such as urinary creatinine we are aiming to tackle as a second priority the chronic kidney disease (CKD) which today is suffered by around > 10% of global population and has been estimated with a 81 B$ renal disease market.

Additionally, the team has also developed a proof of concept technology to develop a sensor that could be integrated to assess glucose levels and therefore asses target diabetes which is expected to reach 415 million € and associated cost of 673 B€ per year.

Finally, this project is expected to have a large impact into our society as we are tackling highly relevant health issues with a significant economic impact and also by improving the quality of life.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.kamleon.com.