Concept
New medical devices that for the first time enable us to measure complex, molecular level signals like biochemical and then respond in real-time have the potential to transform healthcare and how it’s delivered.
Longer Description
- Biochemical wearables to non-invasively and continuously measure our body’s biochemistry from hormones to proteins to drugs to metabolites at the molecular level integrate a general-purpose sensing technologies into the CGM form factor. This enables new approach to disease management and business models:
- Continual monitoring of chronic diseases
- Out-patient monitoring for major diseases formerly untrackable
- Fitness and nutrition optimization
- Partnering with drug developers to provide real-time tracking of their drug’s pharmacokinetics in each patient’s blood stream
Eventually, biochemical sensors will come in other form factors beyond wearables like smart toilets and be embedded more deeply and passively into daily life.
- Microrobotic ingestible or implantable devices that travel inside the body to measure and respond to disease states or to deliver drugs to otherwise hard to reach places. Implantables have recently gained the capacity for continual power generation. For chronic disease management, they’re an “implantable pharmacy on a chip that never runs out.”
- Non-pharmaceutical modulation via devices that measure and modulate the body’s circuitry with electricity or ultrasound have exploded with the rise of BCIs. They’re moving towards increasingly minimally invasive and maximally information dense, enabling new approaches to neurological diseases, mental health, and ultimately mental clarity.
Other Thoughts
Each will generally start with treating severe diseases and move over time towards more mass market consumer uses as these devices only become cheaper, less invasive, more passively embedded into the backgrounds of our lives, and more sophisticated in their measurements, prognosis, and modulations.
Adding biochemical sensors to traditional electronic wearables and health devices will be like moving from continuous vitals measurements to continuous full-body concierge-doctor quality check ups. Eventually, they will be perennially scanning for and managing complex disease states like cancers, microbiome imbalance, or stress in the background of normal life.
Meanwhile, companies BCI companies could for instance prove out their technology for reading brain activity to analyze mental patterns and moods, use that as a way to offer therapy that understands your mental activity better than you do (at the level of neuronal firing), build the industry-leading dataset, and then use that data to create neuromodulatory offerings.
Related Reading
Comparable Companies
- Abbot
- Dexcom
- Medtronic
- Kilele Health
- BioSense8
- Adaptyx Biosciences
- Persperity Health
- Epicore Biosystems
- Microchips Biotech
- Sensate Biosystems
- Nix Biosensors
- Macroduct
- Next-Gen Jane
- Eli Health
- Base
- BiomeSense
- Laborie Medical Technologies
- Atmo Biosciences
- Intuitive Surgical
- Motif Neurotech
- Neuralink
- Synchron
- Neurode Labs
- Insightec
- Attune Neusciences
- Openwater Health
- Nudge
- Kranion
