Hearing Aid continuous health monitoring: Miniaturisation of sensors to demonstrate proof of concept suitable for hearing aids in an ethnically agnostic solution.

助听器持续健康监测：传感器小型化，以证明适用于种族不可知解决方案中助听器的概念验证。

• 批准号: 10065725
• 金额: $ 54.41万
• 依托单位: EARSWITCH LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Investment Accelerator
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10065725
• 关键词: Hearing; Aid; continuous; health; monitoring

EarMetrics sensors are novel sensors to be incorporated in standard hearing aids to provide hearing-aid users medical grade monitoring systems that doesn't impact on their daily lives. This aims to empower people to actively monitor their health, fitness and lifestyle (if they so wish), and/or gain from healthcare monitoring at home; helping people detect illness early, monitor and predict deterioration of long term conditions (e.g. COPD) and allow safe care at home in circumstances when hospital admission would usually be recommended.The initial EarSwitch is the invention of Dr Nick Gompertz to support patients with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) with UK National Institute for Health and Care Research grants. The sensor within an earphone, provides a new route for communication based around voluntary control of the middle ear muscle; the tensor tympani.EarSwitch's work demonstrated the same sensors detect health and fitness signals (EarMetrics) from inside the ear.EarMetrics sensors provides multiple unique benefits for physiological monitoring. Most notably: i) hearing aids are already worn, making it a natural site to add health and fitness monitoring ii) the ear canal provides a protected target site, close to the blood supply to the brain, providing more reliable and insightful monitoring than existing "wearable" monitoring devices, and iii) the sensors detect measurements from inside the ear where there is no pigmentation, irrespective of someone's skin colour. EarMetrics therefore provides the first opportunity for important central, multiple health and fitness insights, suitable for people of all skin colours, from hearing aids.Although ear monitoring (heart rate, pulse waveform and oxygen monitors) has been manufactured in a dedicated earphone, and proposed in a hearing-aid component, these competitors deliver information from the outer part of the ear canal adjacent to the jaw (TMJ) joint. These measurements are affected by jaw movement from eating and talking and are subject to similar racial inequality as finger oximeters; their output is affected by skin colour of the outer ear canal, unlike the EarMetrics sensors inside hearing aids.This project is to combine EarMetrics sensors into miniature modules to demonstrate feasibility for incorporation in hearing aid, and to demonstrate measures including; heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing, racially agnostic central oxygen levels and a new cuff-less blood pressure alternatives and heart function data.EarMetrics offers solutions to maintain health-ageing for all, whatever ones skin colour.

EarMetrics 传感器是一种新型传感器，可集成到标准助听器中，为助听器用户提供医疗级监测系统，不会影响他们的日常生活。其目的是使人们能够积极监测自己的健康、健身和生活方式（如果他们愿意），和/或从家庭医疗保健监测中获益；帮助人们及早发现疾病，监测和预测长期病情（例如慢性阻塞性肺病）的恶化，并在通常建议入院的情况下在家中进行安全护理。最初的 EarSwitch 是 Nick Gompertz 博士的发明，旨在支持运动神经元疾病 (MND) 患者，并得到英国国家健康与护理研究所的资助。耳机内的传感器提供了一种基于中耳肌肉自主控制的新通信途径； EarSwitch 的工作证明了相同的传感器可以检测来自耳朵内部的健康和健身信号 (EarMetrics)。EarMetrics 传感器为生理监测提供了多种独特的优势。最值得注意的是：i) 助听器已经被佩戴，使其成为添加健康和健身监测的自然场所 ii) 耳道提供了一个受保护的目标部位，靠近大脑的血液供应，提供比现有的“可穿戴”监测设备更可靠和更深入的监测，以及 iii) 传感器从没有色素沉着的耳朵内部检测测量结果，无论某人的肤色如何。因此，EarMetrics 为通过助听器获得适合所有肤色的人的重要的中央、多种健康和健身见解提供了第一个机会。尽管耳朵监测（心率、脉搏波形和氧气监测器）是在专用耳机中制造的，并且在助听器组件中提出的，但这些竞争对手从邻近下颌 (TMJ) 关节的耳道外部传递信息。这些测量结果受到进食和说话时下巴运动的影响，并且与手指血氧计一样受到种族不平等的影响。与助听器内的 EarMetrics 传感器不同，它们的输出受外耳道皮肤颜色的影响。该项目旨在将 EarMetrics 传感器组合成微型模块，以演示纳入助听器的可行性，并演示包括以下措施：心率、心率变异性、呼吸、与种族无关的中心氧水平以及新的无袖血压替代方案和心脏功能数据。EarMetrics 提供解决方案来保持所有人的健康老龄化，无论肤色如何。