Animation: Physiologic Status Monitoring via the Gastrointestinal Tract
Channel: Diana Saville
Date: 2015-11-03

This animation was created for Dr. Traverso's lab at the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Swiston’s lab at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. The Traverso and Swiston labs are collaborating to create tiny (ingestible) vital sign monitors that function as microphones to "listen" to heartbeats and breathing.



Today, vital signs such as heart and respiratory rate are generally measured through skin contact, using external devices like ECG and pulse oximetry, and now with various wearable devices.

But what if you could measure vitals without touching the skin?

Here we describe technologies using a miniature microphone that senses essential vitals from the sounds your hearts and lungs make, such as what your doctor hears with a stethoscope at your yearly exam. Ingestion of a device like this would enable rapid and continuous sensing of vital signs in the field.

From a single acoustic wave, we are able to distinguish heart rate and respiratory rate, which can be transmitted externally for potential remote access, processing and evaluation.

In a large animal model, we evaluated the fidelity of the signal in the fed and fasted state, and demonstrate good accuracy in the GI tract.

With the ability to continuously monitor vital signs without the need for a wearable device, we see significant applications in the defense area in the monitoring of soldiers, and in healthcare, monitoring patients at home, or rapid triage in busy emergency rooms, or for trauma patients, where skin contact is difficult or impossible. Finally, these technologies may be used by amateur and professional athletes where the monitored self can drive further optimal training.