Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects

Dehydration is a common, but serious, consequence for several populations, including patients suffering from head and neckcancer (HNC), patients in palliative care, stroke survivors, and seniors. It can lead to hospitalization and even death. In oneyear of hospitalizations in the US, 10,000 people died because of dehydration upon admission. Furthermore, it has beenestimated that prevention of dehydration-based hospital admissions could save the US health system from 1 to 5 billiondollars every year. These risks to the population and the health care system are unnecessary because dehydration is largelypreventable, especially with monitoring. However, most tests for hydration require either a blood or urine analysis, which isnot practical for the average person to undertake on a regular basis. Constant monitoring would be a desirable solution tothe problem of dehydration, and could be achieved through hydration sensors; the bulkiness of hydration sensors hashowever been the major challenge. Here, an electronic patch that adheres to the patients skin is proposed to monitorhydration in everyday life. The electronic patch is thin and stretchable to mimic the mechanical properties of skin and, thus,is wearable on the skin with minimal discomfort. Wireless communication is installed in the patch to enable communicationwith personal portable appliances, such as smart phones. Device validation to healthy volunteers and HNC patientsundergoing chemotherapy are proposed to prove the efficacy of the novel approach. The simple and comfortable nature ofthe wearable sensor has a potential to fundamentally prevent dehydration-related complications within various high-riskpopulations. Finally, the ability to connect with smart phones opens the possibility to revolutionize the health delivery systemby allowing patients to be monitored at home, to have their data sent automatically to their health care providers, and to bealerted when there is a risk of dehydration.