MIT team to build wearable patch to catch heart failure and sepsis earlier

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on November 4 that a team led by its researchers has received up to $38 million over four years from the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a noninvasive patch that continuously monitors biomarkers for heart failure and sepsis, with the goal of helping clinicians diagnose both conditions before they cause irreversible damage.

How the patch would work

The project, called PYTHIA — short for “predictive platform for physiological and therapeutic health intervention and adaptive management” — would monitor biomarkers in interstitial fluid, the fluid under the skin, and be powered by heat from the patient's body. Because the biomarkers exist in very low concentrations, the system would first bind certain chemicals to the biomarker molecules to make them easier to identify, then measure them with advanced microelectronics in the patch. As measurements run continuously and generate huge amounts of data, the patch would also carry on-chip AI models to turn raw readings into information clinicians can use.

Principal investigator Ahmad Bahai, a professor of the practice in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, described the technology as like having a patient automatically give a blood test roughly every 15 minutes. The team will start by developing and testing electronic components for the tiny, low-power chip, then advance the device through pre-clinical and clinical trials toward a version that can be commercially scaled and manufactured.

Why these two diseases

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, while sepsis kills at least 350,000 U.S. adults each year and is the leading cause of death in hospitals. Bahai said the team targeted the two diseases because they are highly lethal, and detecting their biomarkers early could genuinely improve diagnosis and treatment; the device could also track a patient's recovery after hospital discharge and help clinicians design more effective therapies.

PYTHIA grew out of the MIT Program for Health Sciences and Semiconductors, which Bahai co-founded three years ago. The team also includes MIT professors Joel Voldman, Tim Swager, Hadley Sikes and Colin Stultz, plus clinical and industry collaborators. The project is funded through ARPA-H's Delphi Program, led by program manager Leonard Tender. MIT stresses this is a research-stage development program: the device must pass trials and regulatory steps before any clinical use, and it is not a product available for purchase.