Irish wearable technology firm Shimmer Research has introduced a sensor that can measure clinical trial participants’ heart rate, oxygen saturation and emotional responses in addition to their activity and sleep levels.

Part of its Verisense platform, Verisense Pulse+ provides photoplethysmogram (PPG), galvanic skin response (GSR) and an inertial measurement unit (IMU).

The PPG sensor monitors heart rate by using light absorption to measure changes in participant capillary blood volume. The GSR sensor measures changes in sweat gland activity, which can be used to assess the participant’s level of psychological and emotional arousal, stress, and other emotional responses. GSR is used for psychology clinical research and biofeedback, and it is starting to be employed in more clinical applications, including epilepsy.

“We are excited to introduce Verisense Pulse+ to the clinical trial market and integrate these new sensor capabilities into our platform,” said Geoffrey Gill, president of Shimmer in the Americas. “Worn on the wrist, Pulse+ has all the attributes that researchers look for in the Verisense platform. It is versatile and reliable – provides 24×7 continuous raw data – with water resistant, flexible styling. Verisense Pulse+ provides access to high quality raw data, while placing minimum burden on sponsors, clinical trial sites and participants. It’s also easy to use because all the sensors are employed on the same architecture.”

Verisense is a flexible, modular patent-pending platform designed from the ground up to meet the needs of clinical trials and remote patient research.

“After an extensive evaluation of all the on-market wearable sensor products, we determined that Verisense Pulse+ was the only one that could give us the raw data that we needed to study depression relapse thoroughly so we could create a tool to manage it effectively,” said Dilpreet Buxi, CTO of Philia Labs. “We decided to become a Pulse+ beta tester and found the Shimmer team to be very collaborative and resourceful partners.”

Founded based on Intel technology in 2006, Shimmer Research is a wearable technologies services and sensor manufacturing company based in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to standard products, Shimmer provides customised sensor development services, volume manufacturing and complete wearable sensors of any complexity. Its technology and services have been employed by thousands of researchers at more than 900 companies, universities and research institutes in more than 75 countries. The technology is incorporated in the products and services of more than 20 original equipment manufacturers. It has an ISO 13485:2016 certified medical devices quality management system.