Demore, Christine (University of Toronto)

Purpose

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.