The overall HealthCare is becoming more and more intelligent - thanks to the advancement in precision medicine, new technologies such as digitalization and connectivity (ICT, 4G LTE, 5G, LoRa, etc.), as well as thanks to innovation in healthcare services. Key enabling factors are novel biosensors and devices that are integrated with IOT technologies and architected into digital ecosystems. All this enables a paradigm change in health monitoring - move to a time-frequent respectively continuous personalized monitoring. New systems enable monitoring of disease risk factors and can support early diagnosis of an acute or early chronic state of the disease - patients benefiting from an early introduction of disease treatments (such as, for example, in MS multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, periodontisis, or GERD (gastro-esophagal reflux disease)).
After an IOT overview in healthcare systems, new, ongoing design and development of electrochemical and electrooptical POC sensors in a platform device will be presented - with a focus on salivary diagnostics. The former biosensors typically comprise sensors for pH, glucose, and immune system relevant molecules such as immunoglobulins Ig, immune enzymes, and/or metabolism markers for molecules of viral or bacterial origin. 3D printed designs of multiple biosensors in a sensing unit will be presented. The electrooptical sensors are formed by means of processed, micromachined optical fiber sensors, or when optical fibers are integrated in an optical micro-cell, with a millimeter or even submillimeter dimensions, which allows for the determination of optical spectral absorption or fluorescence in the saliva sample. The saliva is mixed with the reagents within the micro-cell, which causes modulation of mixtures of spectral absorption or changes in fluorescence.
Saso Jezernik has received the M.Sc.EE degree with specialization in Control Theory and Process Automation from the Technical University of Graz, Austria, in 1996, and a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Science and Engineering from Aalborg University, Denmark in 1999. Part of the Ph.D. studies was conducted at the Applied Neural Control Laboratory, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA working on active medical implants. From 1999 until the end of 2002 he was a post-doc. at the Automatic Control Laboratory at ETH Zurich working in medical robotics and neuroscience.
In 2006 Saso has completed the MIT Sloan Visiting Fellows Program and has studied at MIT and Harvard Medical School - specializing in technology strategy & innovation management and topics like: biomaterials, implants, MEMS microtechnology & tissue engineering.
For the past 20 years Saso has been focusing on bringing new technologies and enabling innovation in mechatronics and medical device products (e.g. in active implants, medical injectors, hearing instruments) working for major pharma and medtech companies. Lately, his focus has been on digital healthcare and IOT areas, enabling data collection, connectivity, and new solutions / new business models within the healthcare ecosystem.
Saso is a designated EU FP7 healthcare innovation reviewer. He holds 4 patents and has 18 peer-reviewed publications. He also serves as a reviewer for major medical and biomedical engineering journals. Currently works as a Director of Life-Science Consulting company Consultys in Switzerland, and is also a co-founder of a digital health startup Bioinitials.
