Technical Details:
Monitoring a person?s response to cold by recording their skin temperature is a key physiological response parameter for identifying Raynaud?s. This device would provide the means for physicians to definitively diagnose the disease without having to rely solely on a patient?s subjective feedback. According to the NIH, recent surveys show that Raynaud's phenomenon may affect 5 to 10 percent of the general population in the United States. The original application of this miniature finger monitor is for objectively diagnosing Raynaud?s Syndrome by logging changes in skin temperature over extended periods of time. It appears there are other abnormalities and diseases that can be diagnosed by monitoring skin temperature. One such disease is Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), a disease that is reported to affect from 6 to 8 million Americans. In addition to temperature measurements, the device can be viewed more as a generic platform that with slight modifications can be made to record other physiological data from additional on-board sensors (accelerometers, moisture sensors, etc.). The device may have applications outside of the medical field such as the monitoring of personnel, animals, materiel, etc. The unit is self contained, therefore does not need any computer or other interface to operate. This reduces dependency on other technology for entering market.
