{"id":18366,"date":"2021-03-11T10:52:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=18366"},"modified":"2021-03-11T10:55:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T17:55:49","slug":"gates-foundation-funds-new-microchip-for-biologically-embedding-patient-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=18366","title":{"rendered":"Gates Foundation Funds New Microchip For Biologically Embedding Patient Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Researchers are working on novel microchips the size of pepper flakes that can track and log sample data constantly keeping a patient’s medical records accurately updated.<\/p>\n

By\u00a0 Loukia Papadopoulos<\/a><\/div>\n

Jun 30, 2018<\/p>\n

The University of California Riverside reported<\/a>\u00a0that assistant professor of bioengineering in Bourns College of Engineering William Grover<\/a>\u00a0was awarded a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support his work on a technology to biologically embed patient data. The award is the Grand Challenges Explorations Grant and will fund Grover’s lab in the development of data-enabled microchips.<\/p>\n

“Grover\u2019s lab is using microchips to embed patient data directly in biological samples, making it impossible to separate a sample from a patient\u2019s medical record. Each chip has a unique serial number read using a handheld chip reader. The number is linked to the patient\u2019s record in a database or paper file,” reads the University’s statement.<\/p>\n

Chips the sizes of pepper flakes<\/h2>\n

These truly ‘micro’ microchips are said to be no larger than a “flake of pepper” leading the university to say that patients can be \u201csalted\u201d with them during collection. Once this process has been done the chips remain permanently\u00a0inside the sample.<\/p>\n

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This Tiny Microchip Can Heal Live Tissue with a Single Touch<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A chip reader tracks and logs the sample\u2019s location and accompanying results, ensuring patients’ medical records are continuously\u00a0and nearly immediately updated. This feature is particularly useful in circumstances where sample\u00a0analysis requires long travels.<\/p>\n

In those cases, data errors abound and lives are often put at stake. Grover’s new microchips would provide a safe and efficient alternative particularly to medical experts and healthcare professionals operating in the tricky data-acquiring landscape of the developing world.<\/p>\n

Grover is cooperating with the technical team at PharmaSeq Inc., responsible for engineering the current microchip technology used, as well with associate professor of computer science and engineering in Bourns College of Engineering\u00a0Philip Brisk<\/a>. Brisk’s specialties include\u00a0embedded system design and\u00a0application specific and customizable processors.<\/p>\n

Patient privacy protected<\/h2>\n

In order to protect patient privacy, the chips will only contain identification numbers ensuring patient\u2019s more personal data is truly kept confidential. Research on the chips is ongoing and Gates’ funding will now allow Grover’s team to study any potential effects\u00a0the chips might have on samples and vice versa.<\/p>\n

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Studies will also be done to evaluate if the chips will require special coatings or handling. The grant, part of a $100 million initiative funded by the Gates Foundation, will last 18 months.<\/p>\n

Grand Challenges Explorations<\/a>\u00a0was launched “to engage more of the world\u2019s innovators more quickly”\u00a0to hopefully produce solutions to some of the world’s most persistent “global health and development challenges.” To date, over 1,365 projects in more than 65 countries have received the prestigious grant open to anyone from any discipline.<\/p>\n

Grover’s lab<\/a>\u00a0website says his team is “passionate about\u00a0developing instruments<\/a>” and “tools that accelerate the process of developing new instruments.” Their techniques “can be applied in a wide variety of different fields, including medical diagnostics, materials science, toxicology, and many others.”<\/p>\n