DÃœSSELDORF – Henkel has signed a joint marketing and development agreement with Smartz AG under which they will offer hygiene product manufacturers market-ready digital health products, enabled by printed electronics.
The partnership brings together conductive inks from Henkel's printed electronics portfolio with Smartz's existing adult care Internet of Things (IoT) hardware and software solutions.
Together, both companies will be able to create smart hygiene products that can sense when a wearer needs to be changed or moved, supporting and unburdening medical personnel.
With an ageing population and increasing demands for adult care, Henkel says that such solutions provide an effective way to offer improved performance that simplifies the tasks of caregivers. At the same time, it provides dependent people with a less intrusive service and further protection.
Developed alongside Smartz, this new development is said to provide manufacturers of hygiene products with smart capabilities that can be integrated into existing product designs and produced on a large scale. Through the partnership agreement, the companies will also jointly develop future generations of smart care products and new applications relating to digital health.
Products
By offering a full smart adult care solution, conventional incontinence products, such as adult diapers, can be transformed into smart, connected hygiene products. Smartz’ special pod sensor design is a clip-on, reusable device that works in tandem with a sensing interface, which can be integrated within a layer of the diaper. Using conductive inks from Henkel, the sensing material can be printed into the material for the incontinence product at the time of manufacture. This market-ready material is non-invasive, fully safe for skin contact and allows the sensors to communicate wirelessly with a caregiver ´s software dashboard.
Manufacturers can integrate this added functionality to conventional hygiene products within the existing manufacturing infrastructure. It is also said to help healthcare or care providers to quickly realize cost savings by avoiding unnecessary checking and product changes. This also helps to avoid additional inconvenience or even distress that individuals may experience when action is taken needlessly or when it is delayed.
This is especially true for patients unable to communicate their needs. Timely changes and regular repositioning support the prevention of dermatitis, bed sore and urinary tract infections, which are often associated with incontinence patients. The wearers’ status is sent wirelessly to the Smartz app, where it can be monitored via a dashboard of health and wellness metrics or passed to existing monitoring and call systems to keep all relevant information in one place. All data is securely encrypted to comply with relevant privacy legislation.
“We believe in the power of data in the context of medicine. At Smartz, we have a decade of experience in building a robust, yet flexible platform to fully realize this vision,” said Michael Spooner, CEO Smartz. “With Henkel we have found a partner that complements our technology with the target market experience and network, as well as outstanding printed electronics expertise.”
By creating an integrated platform, Henkel and Smartz say they are also providing manufacturers of hygiene products with a scalable solution that can be customized to suit the branding and user requirements of their customers. The first commercial product targets the adult care market, with features including moisture sensing, patient position, environment temperature, and fall detection. The software also allows for individual goal setting per patient, such as alarms for caregivers to reposition to help prevent bed sores and additional incontinence related side effects.
The solution is seamlessly integrated into existing diaper designs without additional capital expenditure. Furthermore, the turnkey solution ensures that concept, prototyping, calibration, and field tests can be rapidly completed within six months. Manufacturers have the access to both partners’ expertise while being able to source the full solution from a single point of contact.
In addition to a joint marketing agreement, the parties have entered a joint development agreement to support development of additional features and additional commercial products extending into adjacent markets like baby care in the future.
