Would you like to get a mask with built-in virus detection?

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the importance of the medical equipment industry has been raised to a new level. At the same time, the awareness of related diagnosis and treatment facilities and personal health care has continued to increase, promoting the growth of market demand for home health care and equipment. On the other hand, the advancement of technologies such as digitalization, intelligence, networking, and mobility has also promoted the development of medical electronic technology, bringing diversified growth expectations to the industry.

Sensor products that medical equipment relies on have also received a lot of attention. As a key link in data collection, sensors not only play an important role in the industrial field and electronic equipment, but also play an important role in the medical industry .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, high-quality testing of people and the novel coronavirus is a top priority in responding to the current crisis. The huge demand for frequent, low-cost, fast, large-volume and accurate testing has led to the emergence of new highly sensitive and fast sensors. Domestic and foreign manufacturers and R&D teams have also made varying degrees of progress in the research and development of new sensors.

To achieve faster and more extensive new coronavirus testing, American scientists have designed two biosensors based on viral proteins that can recognize specific molecules on the surface of the virus. When mixed with components of the new coronavirus or antibodies targeting the virus, the sensors will emit light through a biochemical reaction.

In view of this, the research team also invented another biosensor that also glows when mixed with new coronavirus antibodies. And this sensor will not react to other antibodies in the blood, including antibodies against other viruses, which is very important to avoid false positives.

Based on gold nanostructures prepared on a glass substrate, a Swiss research team developed a biosensor last year that can sensitively and reliably detect the new coronavirus in the air . The researchers "grafted" artificially synthesized DNA receptors that match the RNA sequence of the new coronavirus onto the above-mentioned gold nanostructures, enabling it to recognize the new coronavirus. The process of this new sensor detecting viruses also utilizes two different effects, "localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)" and "plasma photothermal (PPT)", to increase the reliability of detection.

An interdisciplinary research team formed by professors from the School of Chemical Engineering of Yunnan University and researchers from related laboratories has also developed an electrochemical sensor that can detect the COVID-19 virus . Since electrochemical sensors are easy to operate, have low detection costs, and have higher sensitivity and accuracy, the sensor is expected to provide a new detection method for the prevention, control and diagnosis of the new coronavirus epidemic in the future.

Digitalization is the driving force behind the transformation of the medical industry, and sensors are the key. The development of new medical sensor technology has created conditions for a completely different medical concept. This new monitoring method replaces the large, fixed medical monitoring equipment used in hospitals in the past, and instead uses equipment with the following characteristics:

This has attracted many industrial automation companies to step up their layout in the medical field, and research teams around the world are also working hard to develop new sensing technologies in addition to traditional sensor technologies.

Sensors are widely used and important in the medical industry. They can greatly improve the safety, reliability and stability of medical equipment. For example, various physical, chemical and biological sensors are designed and manufactured into equipment and instruments to measure and collect various physiological indicators of the human body.

Specifically, in the medical equipment-related industry, sensors such as flow, pressure, humidity, temperature, infrared, and oxygen are mainly involved to monitor and control various indicators while supporting stable operation. For example, infrared sensors are needed to measure thermometers and heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and other indicators that are often used during the epidemic; high-precision differential pressure sensors are used in air control systems used in many hospitals; and temperature and humidity sensors are indispensable for the equipment required in the production, storage, and transportation of vaccines.

Small sensors play an extremely important role in the medical industry, and their future market space is huge. According to the latest report data from MarketsandMarkets, the global medical sensor market size is expected to grow from US$1.8 billion in 2021 to US$3 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% during the period 2021-2026.

We have seen that the medical equipment industry is developing towards a more digital, networked, intelligent and professional direction. The medical equipment industry is also a multidisciplinary, knowledge-intensive, capital-intensive high-tech industry involving many industries such as medicine, machinery, electronics, and plastics. It can be said that high-tech medical equipment is based on digitization and computerization, and is a multidisciplinary, cross-domain modern high-tech achievement.

In the future, the development of medical equipment manufacturing technology is showing the following trends:

Give me a sensor, and I will change the entire medical industry. This sentence seems to be becoming a reality. We also believe that with the support of more technologies, medical diagnosis and treatment methods will continue to improve and give back more benefits to people.