MouthLab prototype takes vital signs through your breath

Breathe in, breathe out. Thanks, we now have your vital signs. A team of doctors and engineers from the John Hopkins Medical School may make it that easy. The team developed MouthLab, a handheld device that measures vital signs through your mouth and fingertips.

“We see it as a ‘check-engine’ light for humans. It can be used by people without special training at home or in the field” says the device’s lead engineer, Gene Fridman, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at Johns Hopkins.

“We envision the detection of a wide range of disorders,” Fridman says, “from blood glucose levels for diabetics, to kidney failure, to oral, lung and breast cancers.”

The prototype is a small, flexible mouthpiece (similar to those for scuba diving) connected to a small hand-held unit that looks like a tablet. The mouthpiece has a temperature and blood volume sensor. A small pulse oximeter is placed on the hand-held unit to measure blood oxygen levels. Other sensors in the MouthLab monitor breathing from the nose and mouth.

Data is transferred through Wi-Fi to a laptop where graphs are displayed real-time. The research team is working on the next prototype that can display results on its own screen

The goal is for patients to own a MouthLab, take their own vital signs if they need to, and send results to doctors through their smartphones.

Category: Features, Technology & Devices