KE2 Technologies FloPatch: A Flexible Smart Sensor Bandage

KE2科技公司是一家医疗设备公司，专注于开发非侵入性智能传感器，以改善危重患者的临床管理。科创S的旗舰智能贴片产品FloPatch使用连续波多普勒为救护车、急诊科、手术室和重症监护病房中护理危重患者的医生、护士和护理人员提供瞬时血流监测数据。为了适应不同的身体形态和提高检测血流的可靠性，KE2要求他们的FloPatch技术能够灵活地符合患者的身体(例如颈部或腿部)，并采用易于应用的智能补丁外形。传统的手持式多谱勒探头使用坚硬、僵硬的压电陶瓷材料作为有源换能器元件，这不符合人体解剖学的要求。因此，Ke2与德莫尔博士在Sunnybrook研究所的换能器开发团队目前的研究合作将解决开发安装在绷带内并能够实现血流监测应用的解剖一致性的柔性超声换能器的挑战。

KE2 Technologies is a medical device company focused on developing non-invasive smart-sensors to improve the clinical management of critically ill patients. KE2's flagship smart-patch product, the FloPatch, uses continuous wave Doppler to provide instantaneous flow monitoring data to physicians, nurses, and paramedics who care for critically ill patients in the ambulance, emergency department, operating room, and intensive care unit. In order to accommodate differing body morphologies and to improve reliability of detecting flow, KE2 requires their FloPatch technology to flexibly conform to the patient's body (e.g., neck or leg), and to be in an easily applied smart-patch form factor. Conventional hand-held Doppler probes use hard, inflexible piezoelectric ceramic materials for the active transducer elements, which cannot conform to the anatomy. Thus, the current research collaboration between KE2 and Dr. Demore's transducer development team at Sunnybrook Research Institute will address the challenge of developing flexible ultrasound transducers housed within a bandage and capable of achieving anatomical conformity for flow monitoring applications.