A Novel Wearable Device for Continuous Temperature Monitoring & Fever Detection.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Medical Devices
• Patient Monitoring

Background:

• Continuous temperature monitoring is crucial for high-risk patients to detect fevers early.
• Traditional self-monitoring of temperature is often inaccurate and impractical.
• Febrile neutropenia (FN) is a serious risk for patients post-chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the reliability of a novel wearable continuous temperature monitor (Verily Patch).
• To assess the Verily Patch's ability to estimate body temperature in high-risk patients.
• To determine the Verily Patch's effectiveness in early fever detection in outpatient settings.

Main Methods:

• Prospective enrollment of 86 high-risk patients for febrile neutropenia at Mayo Clinic.
• Patients wore the Verily Patch for 7 days post-ASCT, with self-measured oral temperatures recorded every 3 hours.
• Comparison of Verily Patch data against clinic- and patient-assessed oral temperatures using K-fold cross-validation.

Main Results:

• The Verily Patch demonstrated reliable body temperature estimation with a low error rate (0.35 ± 0.88°F).
• High sensitivity (90.2%) and specificity (87.8%) in detecting clinic-assessed fever episodes.
• The patch detected 14.3 times more fever episodes than standard assessment, with a median lead time of 4.3 hours.

Conclusions:

• Wearable continuous temperature monitoring, like the Verily Patch, overcomes limitations of patient self-monitoring.
• This technology shows potential for improved clinical outcomes and cost-effective care in high-risk patient populations.
• Early and accurate fever detection via continuous monitoring can lead to timely interventions.