Printed electronics primed for digital health uptake

Xerox has confirmed production of a new form of a data-retaining sensor which has the potential to act as an authentication tool in the health care industry, verifying or negating the identity of everything from patients to even test strips for blood glucose monitors for diabetics. Xerox has been developing this so-called 'Printed Memory' technology for over five years and uses 3D printing, ink and thin circuitry printed to a PET substrate to produce the sensors.

A technology under development for five years by Xerox is making its way into healthcare and could change the way sensors to support connected health are designed.

Xerox developed a way to produce printed microcircuits using 3D printing and ink and thin circuitry printed to a Polyethylene terephthalate or PET substrate. The sensors are cheap to produce — costing roughly 10 cents to 15 cents — and can retain data for 10 years. Xerox calls its technology Printed Memory and it is currently in production.

Bill Compitello, senior account manager with Xerox Printed Electronics, said the technology was developed through a collaboration between Xerox PARC and Xerox Engineering in Webster, New York. In an interview at HIMSS with Compitello and Denise Fletcher, the chief innovation officer for healthcare and life sciences at Xerox, they talked about the applications for the sensors they envision.

It licensed the technology from Thinfilm.

Compitello said the technology is connected to Xerox’s history of printing photo receptors and was a logical move for the business.

Fletcher said the printed memory technology could provide an authentication function. Pharmaceutical companies will use printed memory to verify whether prescription medication is counterfeit. A tracking label combining a QR code with its printed memory would be read by a scanning device connected to a smartphone and possibly a cloud database.

It is also talking with a couple of companies in the medical device industry to verify the authenticity of test strips used for blood glucose monitors by diabetics.

Luxury brands, such as a high-end watch maker, will embed the printed sensors to verify that it is the manufacturer’s watch and not a fake.

Some of the other applications it is exploring are patient wristbands to verify the identification of patients in hospitals to ensure they get the correct medication and treatment. Fletcher said the sensors could also be embedded into apparel and wearable devices, potentially reducing the cost to produce them. It considers the printed memory technology as belonging to the realm of the Internet of Things.