Designing Digital Therapeutics
Creating Reliable Connections: Designing Wearables for Digital Therapeutics
David Pike for Mouser Electronics
As health care continues to evolve, it's not surprising anymore to hear doctors suggest using digital therapeutics. (Think: "There's an app for that.”). Digital therapeutics are used for medical treatments that are administered through software programs, apps, and digital platforms. These innovative systems aim to improve and treat various medical conditions and diseases through remote care.
These systems use digital technologies to deliver treatments or interventions and have been applied to many medical disciplines. Cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness training, medication management, and physical rehabilitation have all benefitted from this new approach to medical care.
At the center of digital therapeutics is a range of devices that connect wirelessly to measure, track, and provide treatment. They include interactive tools, sensors, and wearables that monitor patients' progress and provide personalized feedback to help them manage their health conditions effectively.
This new generation of connected devices is being made possible by the machine-to-machine (M2M) communication at the heart of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT allows devices to share data, which can be analyzed to provide diagnoses and treatment for patients.
This has been further enhanced by the introduction of the 5G wireless network. Combined with developments in treatment technology such as nebulizers and insulin delivery systems, patients can receive complete medical care in the comfort of their own homes.
These devices have little in common with hospitals' large and cumbersome machines. The miniaturized electronic design has resulted in a new generation of wearable technology, allowing patients to carry on their daily lives, even while being monitored and treated.
Digital therapeutics can be used alone or with traditional therapies and medications to improve patient outcomes, reduce health care costs, and provide convenient and accessible care. They are shown to be effective in managing conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and depression, along with helping patients suffering from anxiety, substance abuse, and chronic pain.
Benefits
The medical profession is keen to embrace the potential offered by digital therapeutics, as they provide many advantages over traditional medical treatment. The first and possibly most apparent is accessibility. The very nature of digital therapeutics means that they are delivered online and can therefore be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Suddenly, patients can access treatments that may not have been available before, whether because of patients’ remote location, limited mobility, or other reasons.
This online delivery also delivers a great leap forward in terms of convenience. Even patients who have full access to traditional medical services are finding that the ease of use of digital therapeutics is transforming their lives.
The software-based nature of many of these devices allows treatment to be tailored to meet each patient's specific needs, providing a more personalized experience. Digital therapeutics also increase patient engagement by providing users with interactive tools and resources that help them actively participate in their health care. The latest diabetic monitoring systems provide an excellent example in which users can monitor their blood sugar levels in real time.
This new technology has the potential to provide cost-effective care, making access to medical services more affordable for patients. By allowing patients to receive care in their own homes, they can avoid expensive visits to the doctor's office. This also improves clinical outcomes for patients using digital technology to reduce the need for post-operative care and extended hospital stays.
Finally, digital technology is improving the medical profession's knowledge of long-term conditions and how they can be treated effectively. Connected devices can collect and analyze data in real time, providing clinicians with valuable insights into patient health and outcomes. This contributes enormously to the body of data, allowing alternative treatments to be developed quickly. Digital therapeutics deliver new and exciting methods for improving patient outcomes and increasing access to effective care while expanding our knowledge of evolving health care needs.
Challenges of Implementation
While digital therapeutics offer many benefits, several challenges are associated with their implementation. In common with all equipment intended for use in the medical field, there is a need for any new device to comply with existing certifications and regulations. This is compounded by the relatively recent nature of digital therapeutics, which are hampered by a lack of clear regulatory guidelines governing their development and use.
Digital therapeutics must therefore be rigorously tested to prove their effectiveness, and there is a need for more research to be conducted in this field. While the existing regulations already help to guide the cover the clinical functionality of wearable devices, digital therapeutic systems are also designed to collect, store and transmit sensitive patient information.
Remotely delivered care will therefore require careful navigation through data security. With wearable devices transmitting health data via wireless networks, designers must be aware of the new layers of regulation surrounding personal privacy. Developers and health care providers must be able to assure patients that their personal information will remain secure. The data-driven nature of this type of care may also present challenges when integrating digital therapeutics with the existing health care system, particularly for smaller practices or those with limited resources.
This may be one of the barriers to widespread acceptance by patients and could contribute to a reluctance to adopt these new technologies, despite the advantages they might offer. Despite using interfaces similar to smartphones, some patients may lack familiarity with modern electronics—the so-called digital literacy—that will be required to operate wearable devices.
The initial costs involved in digital therapeutics are also a potential barrier to adoption. We have already seen that digital therapeutics are cost-effective in the long run. However, manufacturers face high costs associated with developing and implementing medical devices, along with the need for lengthy testing and certification.
Therefore, while digital therapeutics offer significant promise for improving patient outcomes and increasing access to health care interventions, manufacturers must be aware of the challenges that must be addressed for their widespread adoption and use.
Challenges for Designers
The advent of digital therapeutics has brought medical care out of the confines of the hospital and into the realm of wearable technology. Thanks to miniaturized electronic design, patients can now be free to continue their daily activities while being monitored and treated remotely.
For example, the latest wearable devices for patients with diabetes offer an ideal blend of reduced size and high functionality. Connected via Bluetooth® to a smartphone, the combination of machine and smartphone boasts more connectivity and computing power than many hospital-based instruments. However, this IoT revolution has allowed sophisticated medical equipment to move outside the hospital's protected environment and into patients' hands.
More than ever, designers must follow a user-centered approach when creating devices, ensuring they are easy to use and meet patients’ needs. This involves working closely with patients and health care providers to understand their needs and preferences and incorporating their feedback into the design process.
Designers must conduct usability testing to ensure their devices are easy to use and understand. This involves extensively testing devices with real users to identify any critical issues for making changes to improve the patient experience. This must also consider accessibility to ensure access to all patients, regardless of their physical abilities. This may involve incorporating features such as text-to-speech, high-contrast displays, and adjustable font sizes.
Designers are also challenged to create solutions that share data at high speeds while taking advantage of smaller sizes. This places particularly demanding requirements on the connectors used for these devices. With the transmission of data well into the range of gigabits per second, the ability of connectors to create a reliable, secure circuit is becoming ever more critical.
At the same time, the portable nature of the new generation of medical devices, whether wearable or handheld, means that high-speed connectors are expected to survive rough treatment. Exposure to shock and vibration is a crucial consideration for these data-intensive applications. Harsh conditions can cause brief open circuits. Low-frequency electrical systems are robust enough to be unaffected by a gap of a single microsecond. However, the demand for modern devices to process data at rates of 10 gigabits per second or more means that a disruption to the signal of as little as 1 microsecond can lead to the loss of crucial information.
Making Connections
To ensure secure and reliable connections for digital therapeutic devices, connectors must be designed durable enough to withstand the rough treatment, shock, and vibration that wearable devices are exposed to. However, the rise of low-profile devices means that, just as connectors need to be more physically robust, they must also be available in smaller package sizes and finer pitches. Traditional board-to-board connectors have given way to low-profile, lightweight alternatives like flexible printed circuits (FPC).
Interconnect manufacturer Molex understands how important it is for connectors to provide the right combination of small size, robust design, and high performance. These qualities are critical for solutions in the connected world, and designers need to find solution providers who understand the challenges they face. Molex provides the expertise to deliver innovative and reliable solutions to customers, with a commitment to offering choices to the designer of tomorrow's technology.
The company’s latest innovation pushes the boundaries of fine-pitch connectors: The Quad-Row board-to-board connectors deliver up to 36 contacts in a package that is just 3.10mm (total pitch+) long, 2.00mm wide, and 0.60mm high (Figure 1). Molex achieves this small size by employing four rows of contacts on a 0.35mm pitch and staggering each row to produce an effective pitch of just 0.175mm. The result is a more manageable footprint for the PCB designer and greater tolerance during manufacture.
Figure 1: Molex Quad-Row board-to-board connector. (Source: Molex)
The power element at each end of the connector can deliver up to 3A at 50Vs and provides the mechanical strength to make Quad-Row connectors a practical solution in demanding conditions, ideal for the latest generation of wearable medical devices.
Conclusion
The promise of digital therapeutics lies in their ability to provide innovative, personalized, and accessible health care solutions that will improve patient outcomes, reduce health care costs, and ultimately transform how we approach health care. Designing the hardware for this medical revolution requires a fundamental understanding of its functionality and the environment in which it must work. Designers must make sure they choose connectors that can deliver the reliability, robustness, and performance the medical industry demands.
Digital therapeutics are transforming health care delivery by offering innovative and effective treatments accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. The technologies offer many benefits, including increased accessibility, convenience, personalization, patient engagement, cost-effectiveness, and improved clinical outcomes. However, the implementation of these devices also comes with its set of challenges, including compliance with regulations and data security issues. Designers must adopt a user-centered approach to create devices that are easy to use, meet the needs of patients, and comply with regulatory requirements. Connectors play a significant role in the revolution.
Molex's innovative Quad-Row connectors offer a compact, high-performance solution for the latest generation of wearable medical devices, providing the reliability, robustness, and performance that the medical industry demands.