UH Manoa
Research
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s College of Engineering and the John A. Burns School of Medicine are collaborating to harness additive manufacturing (3D-printing) to create a new class of wearable sweat sensors with a focus on diabetes.
That intersection between engineering and public health is the cover story in this month’s Science Advances.
Dr. Tyler Ray from the College of Engineering and Dr. Mariana Gerschenson, Principal Investigator of JABSOM’s Diabetes Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence, are working toward developing wearable sweat sensors, similar to a child’s sticker, to help monitor clinical conditions associated with patients with diabetes. These “sweatainers” enable the collection of pristine samples of sweat, similar to how blood is currently collected.
Being featured in this month’s Science Advances introduces the work done in Hawaiʻi to a worldwide audience.
“The state of Hawaiʻi presents some of the most difficult challenges as it relates to healthcare as few places must deliver world-class care across an ocean to locations with limited healthcare infrastructure,” Dr. Ray said. “Innovative wearable sensors offer compelling opportunities to address these challenges by expanding the types of care we can provide via telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. Here in Hawaiʻi, we can contribute broadly to the blueprint for providing world-class healthcare to all, regardless of location. ”
Currently, Dr. Ray and his students are investigating ways to manufacture wearable health devices in Hawaiʻi.
“That’s what we’re bringing forward in this article. We want to find a new way of creating wearable sweat devices that can be manufactured in a low-cost way, but still have the high precision that would be expected from a traditional manufacturing approach.”
Read the full article in Science Advances here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg4272
View their YouTube Video below: