A Chip Could Detect Heart Attacks Before They Happen

Swiss researchers say they've come up with a tiny implant that can analyze blood from within our bodies and send test results directly to a doctor.

The device would be implanted just below the skin and can basically look at the concentration of substances in the blood to help determine the status of a patient's health. There are five sensors, a radio transmitter and a power system to make it all work, as explained in the video above. The chip, which is only about 14mm (or about a half-inch), was developed by a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL).

After the medical implant chip does its analysis, a battery patch on the skin receives the chip's radio signals of information and transmits that to a cell phone, which then helps send the data to a doctor.

This technology could be used for doctors to track and monitor a patient's symptoms ahead of time, as well as for personalized medicine: "It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient's individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests," EPFL team lead Giovanni de Micheli said in a news release.

Another EPFL scientist, Sandro Carrara, told The Verge that the implant can detect a molecule tied to heart attacks three of four hours before an attack.

This chip prototype is still undergoing experiments, but researchers hope it could be commercially-available within four years.