In this episode, we spoke with Aditi Subramanian, Strategic Business Unit Manager for the Healthcare side at FLEXcon. We discussed how OMNI-WAVE™, a revolutionary biosensing technology, eliminates the need for hydrogel in medical diagnostic and therapeutic wearable devices. Aditi also explained OMNI-WAVE’s benefits, applications, and testing standards, and how it is a roadmap for FLEXcon’s future in the healthcare space.
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Conversation Overview
- Aditi Subramanian is the Strategic Business Unit Manager for Healthcare at FLEXcon.
- She has a biomedical engineering background and joined the company in 2021.
- Before coming to FLEXcon, she worked in adhesives and then moved into medical devices.
- FLEXcon is growing its healthcare business starting with OMNI-WAVE™ in November 2022 as an alternative to hydrogels.
- OMNI-WAVE™ is a skin-to-skin, hydrogel-free, medical-grade adhesive with biosensing technology.
- OMNI-WAVE™ increases patient comfort and compliance, saves money because it has a longer out-of-pack shelf life, and is easier to convert and package.
- Hydrogels have been on the market for about 50 years. Because hydrogels are water-based, they can cause skin sensitivity in some patients resulting in anything from small rashes to large boils.
- Because OMNI-WAVE™ isn’t water-based, it doesn’t dry out and provides a more reliable signal.
- OMNI-WAVE™ doesn’t require an aluminum water barrier package. Hydrogels require processing and die cutting for convertibility.
- While hydrogels are 30 to 50 millimeters thick, OMNI-WAVE™ is only one to two millimeters thick.
- OMNI-WAVE™ doesn’t have to bridge across multiple electrodes.
- OMNI-WAVE™ is useful for the “worried well” consumers who want additional health information.
- OMNI-WAVE™ allows doctors to send patients home with devices that collect data and can be used with electrodes to pick up an ECG/EKG signal.
- Those who seek a more reliable signal are more likely to adopt this new technology.
- FLEXcon put OMNI-WAVE™ through extensive testing. The product passes ISO 10993-10 for sensitization and irritation and is AAMI compliant. It is an approved component in customer 510(k) and CE-marked finished good medical devices.
- FLEXcon values its converter partners as extensions of its own sales force and has communicated with many OEMs so they understand how long it should stay on bodies.
- Currently, OMNI-WAVE™ can stay on a person’s body for three to four days or up to 21 days when combined with FLEXcon’s dermaFLEX products.
- As a component supplier, FLEXcon seeks to provide data, help file paperwork, and provide expertise on OMNI-WAVE™’s wearable aspect. OMNI-WAVE™ isn’t a single product - FLEXcon plans to have a series of launches.
- By the end of 2023, the company hopes to have an even longer-term product that could be reusable and re-adjustable for FLEXcon’s diagnostics and therapeutics line.
- FLEXcon’s wearable dermaFLEX line is complementary.
- The company wants to hear from its customers about what devices they are creating and where they plan to place them on patients’ bodies so it can continue to provide innovations to serve the market.
- Many people don’t recognize that FLEXcon has a healthcare division. Aditi hopes to continue to build awareness of the brand name for medical device companies.
Disclaimer: OMNI-WAVE™ is a trademark of FLEXcon or its affiliates.
