Communication between implanted medical devices (AIMD) and medical doctors: Project ERMES
Author
Marlene Kopf
Publication Date
Keywords
implantable medical device
technological advancements
EIC pathfinder
molecular communication
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Project ERMES: Cutting edge research for good communication
Project ERMES has been funded under the highly competitive EIC Pathfinder program of 2024.
An active implantable medical device (AIMD) is a device that relies on electrical energy or another energy source, other than that produced by the human body or gravity, designed to be implanted in the human body. The growing demand for medical services, the rise of chronic diseases, and rapid technological advancements are key drivers in the increased use of AIMD. However, one of the major challenges in the development of AIMD is the limited ability to communicate with or control their functions, as they are deeply embedded within the body.
The ERMES project aims to revolutionize this aspect by introducing a novel concept for communication between medical professionals and AIMD through synthetic molecular communication (MC). MC, a bioinspired communication method, leverages molecules to encode and transmit information. The ERMES project seeks to apply this strategy, allowing medical personnel to effectively communicate with next-generation AIMD.
Leverage the potential of molecular messengers for AIMD
In project ERMES, the objectives are:
- Selecting, chemically designing, and synthesizing suitable molecular messengers.
- Designing and validating injection and modulation schemes that enable molecular messengers to propagate through the body’s vascular system, thus allowing doctors to send instructions to an AIMD.
- Developing detection methods for chemical messengers released by an AIMD into the bloodstream, and exploring ways to ensure secure and reliable communication between doctors and AIMD.
ERMES: Four pillars around AIMD
The consortium focuses on four core pillars around AIMD:
- Tools for theoretical development, including analytical models and simulations to design and optimize communication links.
- In-vitro experimental systems at a laboratory scale to demonstrate proof-of-concept in controlled settings.
- In-vivo experimental systems using specially designed models to study AIMD communication under real-life conditions.
- Ensuring trusted and secure communication between AIMD and medical professionals.
By harnessing molecular communication, ERMES aims to bridge the current gap in AIMD control and monitoring, bringing us closer to more intelligent, responsive, and secure medical devices that can seamlessly interact with healthcare providers.
How to use microfluidics for next generation AIMD communication
We at the MIC will develop a flow control setup for the project with specific components such as a microfluidic viscometer to support a system that mimics blood circulation in the human body.
You need a microfluidics partner for your project on implants as well? Let us know! We are interested in joining your consortium and are open to a wide variety of topics and calls.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation program under HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDEROPEN-01-01, grant agreement no. 101185661 (ERMES).
Start date: 1 April 2025
End date: 31 March 2028
Overall budget: € 3,700,823.50
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FAQ – Communication between AIMD and medical doctors: ERMES
What is ERMES?
An effort to enable clinicians to communicate with active implantable medical devices (AIMDs) using synthetic molecular communication, i.e., a message encoded in molecules transmitted through the bloodstream to command or query an implant, was demonstrated at the Pathfinder scale.
Why should AIMD have a new method of communication?
Traditional RF or inductive connections are power-hungry, attenuation-limited, and constrained by safety, alignment, and tissue heterogeneity. Implants that are deep-brain implants – neurological, endocrine, or cardio-neurological – can frequently not form strong, secure links. With good engineering, molecular signaling can leverage the body’s existing transport network and bypass most bottlenecks.
Molecular communication in ERMES: how does it work?
The team develops synthetic molecular messengers, determines how to inject and tune them to allow them to spread through the vasculature, and provides an implant to read the commands and, in turn, release detectable chemical responses. In short, the process involves encoding – delivering – detecting – acting, with design criteria of end-to-end reliability and security.
What are the technical specific goals?
- Select, chemically design, and synthesize messenger molecules.
- Engineer injection and modulation schemes for controlled vascular propagation.
- Detection techniques of messenger signals emitted by the implant into the blood.
- Authenticate safe communication between clinicians and AIMD.
What is the appearance of the plan of the experiment?
It has four parallel running pillars, including (i) link design analytical models and simulations, (ii) in-vitro laboratory systems to demonstrate feasibility under controlled conditions, (iii) in-vivo models to ensure the realism and edge cases, and (iv) a security layer to ensure the integrity and privacy of the information exchanged.
What about microfluidics, what is MIC going to construct?
MIC will construct a flow-control testbed that simulates the flow of human circulation. A microfluidic viscometer and accurate dosing are used to replicate physiological shear and viscosity ranges. This space is the circulatory sandbox in which messenger delivery, dispersion, and detection limits may be adjusted in advance of any in-vivo activity.
What are the anticipated readouts that indicate that the link actually functions?
Dose-response curves of messenger delivery, time-of-arrival, and dispersion curves at flow, implant limits of detection, false-positives, and closed-loop command/acknowledgement sequences. The acceptance criteria include security tests for tamper resistance, spoofing resistance, and eavesdropping resistance.
What would be the probable effect in case this is a success?
Clinicians could safely push settings or triggers to implants without surgical access or delicate RF interfaces, and implants could report status chemically even in RF-hostile environments. That would mean fewer re-interventions, fewer risky follow-ups, and new families of classes of stealth devices with ultra-low-power budgets.
I am forming a Horizon Europe medical devices consortium- what is the added value of MIC to ERMES?
MIC is a microfluidics SME that regularly participates in EU consortia, providing hardware, automation, and measurement components for complex bioassays. We prepare offers together, model work packages based on prototype deliverables, and risk-proof manufacturable designs. Consortia incorporating MIC prototype-first model usually claim success rates that are twice the official baseline at similar calls- a trend we put down to obvious technical way, believable milestones, and early demonstrators.
What are the next steps for partners and the industry?
Design messenger chemistries with your therapeutic performance parameters, load your implant electronics into the perfusion emulator, and map the security model to your regulatory pathway. MIC is accustomed to co-writing proposals and standing up a benchtop demonstration, which derisks the critical path in less than a handful of work packages.