Sensor Tape Improves Care of Adult Patients

A technology venture firm, Akita Techno Design, has developed sensors for adult diapers and absorptive pads, which informs care workers when a change is needed.

According to Takeshi Ito, president of the company, the diaper will make patient care more efficient and subject patients to less trauma. Called ‘Oshiri Kaiteki’ or Comfy Bottom, the product has been fabricated from carbon material that has been printed on a sensor tape that is 50micrometer thick. The tape is run along the inner layer of an adult diaper or absorbent pad and then linked to a compact transmitter. The device will not pick up signals if minor amounts of urine have been discharged nor perspiration. It will only pick up signals when large amounts of urine have been released and relay the data to a wireless receiver.

The solution is cost -efficient, so can be discarded along with the disposable diaper. The central wireless receiver will pick up alerts from around 15 patients located within 100metrs of the receiver. The system ensures that the attendant does not need to check the patient often, and makes for hygienic, prompt and sensitive care of patients.

Ito decided to build the sensor after his mother began needing such care before her death in March 2009, during which period he heard her attendants comment that there was no system that made it easy for them to care for such patients. He said that  he and his employees also tested the diaper themselves, before conducting further tests at a nursing home. The solution is currently in use at a hospital in Nagoya, while also undergoing tests currently at various medical centers in Akita Prefecture.