WearOptimo CEO and founder Professor Mark Kendall has long seen the opportunities in challenge, such as launching a healthtech business in Brisbane, rather than in a more traditional locale such as Silicon Valley or Geneva.  

This made it a perfect theme on which to expand when he was interviewed for the Engineers Australia online news hub Create. 

In a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from engineering innovation to the importance of government grants, Mark also touches on hydration, which is the focus of our first Microwearable sensor. An edited extract is below… 

Hydration may not sound like a critical issue in healthcare, let alone workplace safety, but as Kendall explained, it can be a life and death calculation. 

“As we dehydrate, our brain shrinks,” he said. “If you’re just three per cent dehydrated, it has an equivalent effect on your brain function of being over the blood alcohol limit. If you’re driving a 400-tonne coal hauler, that’s problematic. Alcohol gets managed on a mine, but hydration does not — it’s a poster on the wall asking the colour of your urine.” 

In time, Kendall hopes that the product can also help the elderly, with people with dementia often facing dehydration as they forget to properly nourish themselves. 

“We’re doing human clinical trials in fit and healthy individuals, [before] moving into elite athletics settings,” he said. “Volunteers in a human physiology lab are put through a tough exercise regimen and a high temperature environmental chamber, where they dehydrate. We test our sensor versus standard approaches and demonstrate the attributes of our sensor.” 

Read the full article here