Friday, September 30, 2022
Epicore Biosystems, a digital health company specializing in sweat-sensing wearables, has announced a new collaboration with 3M's Health Care Business and Innovize Inc. This collaboration will leverage 3M's skin-interfacing materials and Innovize's manufacturing capabilities to scale Epicore Biosystems' portfolio of advanced wearable hydration solutions.
In the face of supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and climate-related issues, it is crucial for healthcare companies to avoid logistical bottlenecks in the development and delivery of medical devices. Epicore Biosystems has established a nimble network of domestic partners to deploy its sweat-sensing technology effectively, addressing the risk of dehydration among athletes and industrial workers in high-heat environments.
Jeffrey Model, Chief Product Officer and Co-founder at Epicore Biosystems, expressed excitement about the collaboration, stating, "Our collaboration with 3M and Innovize ensures that Epicore Biosystems has a strong domestic production infrastructure. We're thrilled to collaborate with material science and manufacturing powerhouses as we expand our suite of clinically-validated, sweat-sensing products and pave the way for the future of noninvasive health tracking wearables."
Epicore Biosystems' wearable solutions measure sweat biometrics and provide personalized insights on hydration and recovery. The wearable sweat sensor captures data such as sweat rate, total sweat loss, electrolyte concentrations, bioanalyte loss, skin temperature, and motion. These data are then analyzed through a proprietary cloud engine and delivered to the wearer via a smartphone application and cloud portal. The company's key differentiators include flexible physical properties for seamless integration, multimodal data streams for direct measurements of hydration, stress, and nutrition status, and low-cost designs that eliminate the need for cleaning or external charging stations.
Chad Reed, Director of 3M Medical Device Solutions, highlighted the mission of 3M to improve lives and solve challenges through science, emphasizing the partnership's potential to achieve this goal. He stated, "Working with Epicore Biosystems, we can do exactly that. We're proud to provide medical-grade products for Epicore Biosystems' suite of wearable microfluidic solutions as part of our commitment to innovation in healthcare, wellness, and sports performance."
The product development at Epicore Biosystems incorporates materials and design strategies developed in collaboration with Innovize, supporting high-volume manufacturing. Innovize utilizes a roll-to-roll (R2R) method, similar to newspaper printing, to produce microfluidic structures efficiently. This method is ideal for manufacturing Epicore Biosystems' products, processing thin polymeric sheets of off-the-shelf materials from 3M and other suppliers into functional microfluidic components and finished products.
Dave Jessen, Owner and Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Innovize, expressed excitement about the disruptive impact Epicore Biosystems is making in the wearables sector. He affirmed Innovize's commitment to collaboration with innovative partners and their dedication to growing the partnership in the personalized hydration management products space.
Epicore Biosystems' suite of sweat-sensing wearables includes the Gx Sweat Patch, developed in partnership with PepsiCo and Gatorade, the Discovery Patch® Sweat Collection System, and the Connected Hydration wearable hydration sensor and mobile application designed for industrial athletes and sports. These technologies have been developed and tested in collaboration with leading sports physiology labs and research hospitals, including the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, University of Connecticut Korey Stringer Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst Center for Human Health and Performance, and the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
