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52

May 31 • 2018

jn

health

Sweet
Dreams?

Patch can diagnose
sleep apnea in
your own home.

S

can be long, patients may damage the
leep should be a time to
device or fail to return it to the clinic,
recharge, be comfortable and
or they may have difficulty assembling
dream, yet nearly one in five
it at home.
Americans suffers from a chronic
sleep disorder that prevents them
from restful slumber. It is
ABOVE: The patch A SEAMLESS AND
that can diagnose ECONOMIC SOLUTION
a problem that TATCH,
sleep problems. TATCH is a sleep diagnosis and
a Runway Startup Postdoc
monitoring patch that replaces
Program company at the
bulky wired devices; the patent-
Jacobs Technion-Cornell
pending, disposable product
Institute, is keen to tackle
is both easy-to-use and cost-
and its innovative solution
effective. To develop the proto-
could bring relief to millions
type, the team focused on sleep
of troubled sleepers.
apnea — the most common
The negative health
sleep test done in the United
effects of poor sleep are well
States today.
documented, said Dr. Amir
Dr. Amir Reuveny
The one-use patch combines
Reuveny, CEO of TATCH
flexible electronics, machine
and Elisha M. Friedman
learning and wearable technol-
Postdoctoral Fellow at
ogy to monitor diagnostic parameters
Technion-Cornell. If you have a sleep
for sleep apnea, such as sleep position
disorder, your risk of developing dia-
and oxygen saturation levels.
betes can be up to three times higher
“The patch has sensors and a
than normal, and the chance of hav-
communication module inside.
ing high blood pressure can be up to
All the signals are communicated
four times higher.
Further, sleep deprivation and dis-
from the patch to your smartphone
securely, and from the phone they
orders are estimated to cost the econ-
are saved to the cloud. Then the
omy more than $400 billion annually
clinic can easily pull the results of
due to factors such as accidents and
the test,” Reuveny said.
loss of productivity. And, of course,
The patch is aimed at sleep clin-
disturbed sleep can have a serious
ics, and the team believes it will
effect on a person’s emotional and
dramatically reduce diagnostic costs
personal life.
for several reasons: Patients can eas-
Perhaps most surprising, most peo-
ily carry out the test at home; they
ple who suffer from sleep deprivation
do not require complex instructions;
and sleep disorders are undiagnosed.
the risk of damaging or failing to
“It was really staggering for us, why
return an expensive wired device is
such a huge epidemic is left with so
removed.
many underdiagnosed and untreated
patients,” Reuveny said.
WHEN TECH INNOVATION MEETS
Reuveny, who studied impercep-
tible electronics and earned his Ph.D.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Reuveny has embraced the opportu-
from Tokyo University, was drawn to
nities offered by the Runway Startup
the problem not least because of the
Postdoc Program at the Jacobs
sheer scale of it, but also for personal
reasons: His own father, he said, hasn’t Institute. The program’s mission of
taking digital science specialists and
had a good night’s sleep in more than
helping them become entrepreneurs
20 years.
was a perfect fit for him.
The existing diagnostic procedure
“This program provides us with a
is labor-intensive and expensive, mak-
clinical pilot in a sleep clinic in New
ing it inaccessible to many people. It
York City, and they are very helpful in
is also cumbersome and unpleasant;
sleep labs haven’t changed much since administering the pilot and testing
the device. This will be the first meet
the 1970s, Reuveny said. “You sleep
of the patch with real patients, which
outside your house. You are wired to
is very exciting for us,” Reuveny said.
10-20 different electrodes. People are
The next steps for the patch
watching you, monitoring you during
include bringing the prototype to
the night.”
product stage, starting clinical pilots
While home diagnostic tests are
and investigating its application in
cheaper ($200 per night compared to
the diagnoses of other sleep disor-
$1,000-$5,000 in-lab), there is still a lot
ders. •
of friction in the process: Waiting lists