High data-rate wireless communication for deep medical implants

Inven2, OUS and a German industry partner will verify a wireless communication technology that enables transmission of high-resolution video from sensors deep inside the body without the use of energy in the sensor. The communication technology is based on the fact that a communication signal sent from the outside of the body is coded with information from the sensor and reflected out of the body. The technology is called “backscattering” and corresponds to the way the bats navigate in the dark and get information about their surroundings. This allows sensors inside the body to have smaller batteries, remain inside the body for a long time, or perform more complex measurements. The transmission technology shall be tested in a controllable wireless capsule with a camera that will stream live video from the inside of the intestine. The goal is to enable a new screening method for colon cancer, which will cause more people to participate in screening programs, so that possible cancers are detected allowing earlier and improved treatment. This will make colon-cancer diagnostics cheaper, simpler, more accurate and less invasive than with today’s flexible endoscopes, and may be an important facilitator for screening programs now initiated in most European countries, in Norway from 2019. In Germany, the program is well established, but only 10% of the target group participates in the program. This project focuses on colon cancer, but in parallel, the technology is also tested for use in pacemakers. Today's pacemakers use wires between the control unit, which lies beneath the skin, and the electrodes attached to the heart. The goal is for our technology to enable pacemakers without wires. A successful verification project will give opportunities within medical implants for various application in the gastrointestinal tract, the heart, the brain, and other organs.