ATLANTA — This week, it’s going to be hot, with temperatures reaching the 90s later in the week.
In Georgia, the dangers of high heat are well-known. Two Georgia universities are working to create a way to get a heads up, before you get heat stroke.
Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer spoke to researchers from Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology, who are designing a band-aid sized way to save lives in extreme heat.
The “bio patch” the scientists are testing is a small device targeting big problems.
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Heat exposure kills hundreds of people every year and sends thousands to emergency rooms across the United States.
In Georgia, Dr. Roxana Chicas, with Emory University’s Woodruff School of Nursing, said the goal of the device is to reduce heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke.
Chicas told Channel 2 Action News that human bodies respond to high heat in complex ways. The Emory researcher said the bio patch is meant to catch dangerous conditions in time for you to get out of the heat, instead of going to the hospital.
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“They are working outdoors, they’re training outdoors and sometimes they feel like, ‘I just need to power through, it’ll go away,’” Chicas said. “So what this bio patch will do is send them alerts ahead of time, something objective that people can use and hopefully reduce heat-related illness and heat stroke.”
At Georgia Tech, Dr. Hong Yeo showed Channel 2 Action News how the reusable patches work, by sticking to your chest.
Yeo showed Stouffer how the patches attach to the sternum to monitor for stress, even before people actively notice it.
While the device is being tested now, the team working on it doesn’t know when it might be ready for the public. Yeo says the patch can do more than commercials watches and rings on the market now.
“I cannot tell you when it’s available, but I’m doing my best to find investors or somebody who can help us to bring this to the market,” Yeo said. “So, please make sure to tell everyone that I’m looking for partners.”
In the U.S., the number of heat-related deaths varies a lot. Some years it’s 600, but in 2023 it spiked to more than 2,000.
Yeo says the patch can do more than the watches and rings are the market now.
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