In emergency situations, such as when the victim is suspected to be hypothermic, knowing their core temperature as accurately as possible is essential for proper triage, but this information is not always easy to obtain – current thermometers are not accurate enough, especially in harsh environmental conditions, and the probes used in hospitals, for example the esophageal one, most often cannot be inserted in the field. When the Eurac Research team, on the initiative of Hermann Brugger and Giacomo Strapazzon, supported by the technical expertise of the South Tyrolean companies Minnova Med, represented by Michaela Egebrecht, and Kerr Srl, represented by Andrea Stona, conceived MedSENS –the instrument that measures various vital parameters from the ear canal– they had precisely this scenario in mind. “Also, thanks to the experience of some of us in mountain rescue and emergency service, we knew we wanted a noninvasive and easy-to-use instrument that combined temperature measurement with oxygen saturation measurement,” recalls Michela Masè, a physicist and researcher at Eurac Research. “There are already devices on the market that can be inserted into the ear, but they are too sensitive to external temperature and therefore not reliable so that’s where we started from.”
MedSENS consists of a probe about the size of an ear-plug, which contains innovative measuring sensors; the rescuer pushes it into the victim’s ear, then covers it with an outer ear pad that insulates against heat and cold and incorporates a small screen that shows the measured values in real time. In fact, in addition to body temperature, MedSENS also measures heart rate and oxygen saturation and gives a complete picture of essential vital parameters. The data can then be sent wirelessly to any other device connected by rescue teams.