Henkel and Byteflies have announced an extension of an existing partnership to further drive solutions for remote patient monitoring. The companies have signed a letter of intent toward the development of a joint commercial and joint development cooperation. This partnership aims to further strengthen the combination of Henkel’s medical adhesives and printed electronics expertise with remote patient monitoring solutions of Byteflies, focusing on ECG monitoring. Together, the partners are driving the development of additional remote patient monitoring solutions on their mission to make virtual care available to all–both in the hospital and at home.

Today, advanced sensor solutions for wearable devices based on printed electronics enable real-time monitoring of patients, and the collection of a variety of relevant patient data. The technology offers enormous potential, while at the same time still posing challenges for developers and manufacturers, related to, for example, functional material formulations, material compatibility, or form factor. Remote patient monitoring solutions are worn on the body, measure vital signs, and record them. These wearable devices play an important role in supporting the treatment of diseases and in improving the quality of life, especially for people with chronic diseases. With their extended partnership, Henkel and Byteflies are further driving the development of additional remote patient monitoring solutions and contribute to increasing their availability and adoption.

About the Collaboration

Henkel and Byteflies started their collaboration in 2019 by developing a smart health patch, together with Quad Industries and four other partners, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel COVID-19 health patch technologies contributed to time savings for practitioners, reducing the risk of infection and improving the monitoring of health parameters. Henkel has developed the electrodes and conductive inks that allowed the patch to be used for multiple days, rather than just one day, while keeping signal quality and patient comfort high. Byteflies has launched three Care@Home solutions: CovidCare@Home, CardioCare@Home for cardiac arrhythmias, and EpiCare@Home for epilepsy. 

“We have the ambition to become a world leading partner for healthcare providers to make the transition to virtual care,” explained Hans De Clercq, co-CEO at Byteflies. “Our Care@Home end-to-end solutions leverage the power of remote patient monitoring and real-world data to generate actionable insights for healthcare providers and patients. The extension of our partnership with Henkel will help us to scale the technology beyond our initial beachhead market in Belgium and current Care@Home solutions, and deliver the most reliable and user-friendly wearable solutions to patients and professionals.”

“The latest global developments have exerted pressure onto the global healthcare systems,” added Beate Grobben, head of Business Development EIMEA for printed electronics at Henkel. “We aim to combine our broad Henkel medical product portfolio, development capabilities, manufacturing support, and customer insights, with our medical ecosystem. Only together can we accelerate the development, industrialization, and go-to market of new technology solutions, and enable medical professionals to remotely monitor patients–allowing for better patient treatments, shorter hospital stays, and, most importantly, more patient convenience.”

For more information, visit: www.henkel.com.