LISTEN: Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a medical pacifier that makes monitoring newborns vital signs easier on both patients and doctors. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge has more.

Hong Yeo holds a pacifier that can monitor electrolyte levels via saliva

Hong Yeo, associate professor and Harris Saunders Jr. Endowed Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, came up with the pacifier idea at a pediatric technology conference.

Credit: Christopher McKenney

Doctors can collect real-time information about a newborn’s electrolyte levels from their saliva as they suck on a pacifier instead of having their blood drawn multiple times, thanks to the work of researchers with Georgia Institute of Technology.

Hong Yeo, associate professor and Harris Saunders Jr. Endowed Professor in Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, came up with the pacifier idea at a pediatric technology conference.

"That's the beauty of collaboration," Yeo said.

A clinician told Yeo about how infant vitals are taken in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), seeking a way to improve the process by brainstorming with an engineer. 

Currently, the only way to monitor electrolytes is to draw blood multiple times a day, which can be painful and frightening for babies as well as challenging to perform for medical staff, who can have trouble drawing blood from tiny, underdeveloped blood vessels.

Yeo used concepts from mechanical engineering, bioengineering, material science and electrical engineering to study new materials, manufacturing methodologies and system integration.

This pacifier is an example of Yeo's work with biosensors and bioelectronics to advance human health care.

"It's going to be a lot more convenient for clinicians and physicians," Yeo said. "And also smarter than the existing system in a way that it can provide continuous data sets instead of discrete measurement using blood."

Yeo's team first figured out how to collect a baby’s saliva with the pacifier, then they attached flexible membrane sensors using existing miniaturization technologies.

Hojoong Kim, a research professor at the WISH Center and program manager of the KIAT-Georgia Tech Semiconductor Electronics Center (which Yeo directs), developed special electronic circuits to make the pacifier wireless and compatible with conventional Bluetooth technology.

The opening at the pacifier’s nipple draws saliva into the channel, which then guides the saliva through the device and into a reservoir equipped with sensors that react to sodium and potassium ions, constantly measuring their levels.

Physicians can use a smartphone or tablet to receive a real-time, continuous flow of data about a baby’s vitals at any given moment, Yeo said.

The concept of using saliva as a noninvasive way to measure important disease biomarkers can be greatly expanded, Yeo said, noting that researchers are looking into sensors to measure lactate, glucose, and pH levels.

Perhaps, he said, something in a dental retainer.

Tags: Georgia  Georgia Tech  infants  health