Non-Invasive Hydration Monitoring

Improper hydration results in fatigue, loss of motor skills, impaired perception, decision making, and dizziness and possibly leading to death. Therefore, ensuring adequate hydration is critical. Common measures of hydration status are changes in body weight, plasma osmolality, urine osmolality and urine specific gravity. Each methodology has its strengths and weaknesses. However, these point-in-time diagnostic tests are impractical for ambulatory or real time estimation of acute dehydration. PhiloMetron plans to develop a non-invasive, fully ambulatory, on-body Hydration Monitoring System as a continuous dehydration monitor. This SBIR Phase II program includes four clinical studies and the development of an alpha device to advance this development effort. The dehydration monitoring system will be used by soldiers, firefighters, elderly and athletes to accurately assess the change of hydration during the monitoring period. This would enable them to rehydrate and / or rest before experiencing the physical and cognitive degradation resultant from dehydration. The potential applications by soldiers include use during training exercises to educate on hydration loss and replenishment time and for instructor safety monitoring, during combat to ensure soldiers maintain physical energy by rehydrating properly, and as a tool for logistics support to better manage delivery of water to forwardly deployed soldiers.