Continuous, ICU-Grade Wearable Monitoring for Far-Forward and Austere Casualty Care: Sibel Health Inc.

The Problem

The modern warfighter is increasingly cared for far from definitive care, in prolonged field care, multi domain operations, and austere cold weather theaters like the Arctic, where the bulky, cabled monitors that deliver ICU level accuracy in civilian medicine simply cannot follow. Medics and corpsmen are asked to triage, monitor, and evacuate casualties with little more than intermittent, manual spot checks of vital signs, while infectious disease threats can silently erode force readiness before a single symptom appears. Without continuous, objective physiology, clinical deterioration goes unrecognized until it becomes a preventable death. Closing that gap requires monitoring that is accurate enough for the ICU yet rugged, wireless, and wearable enough for a litter, a helicopter, or a ship to shore evacuation in Kodiak.

Project Highlight

Sibel Health is a Chicago based, Northwestern University spin out delivering "Better Health Data for All®" through its ANNE® wearable monitoring platform: soft, flexible, skin interfaced sensors that reproduce ICU level vital signs (ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate, SpO₂, temperature, body position, activity) while remaining virtually invisible to wear, paired with AI/ML analytics and open, standards based connectivity. What differentiates Sibel Health is the combination of clinical grade accuracy, a band aid like form factor, and interoperability built for the field rather than vendor lock in, including integration pathways with military software such as BATDOK. Since receiving its MTEC awards, the company has completed a study of over 300 high risk subjects validating predictive algorithms for pre symptomatic and early symptomatic infection; earned ANNE® One Product of the Year at the MTEC 10th Annual Meeting; secured eight FDA 510(k) clearances across the ANNE® platforms; achieved CE Mark certification under EU MDR 2017/745 as a Class IIb medical device, making ANNE® One the first wireless wearable monitoring platform certified to the IEEE 11073 Service-Oriented Device Connectivity (SDC) family of standards; and field evaluated the technology in extreme cold weather operational conditions during the medical experimentation portion of Arctic Edge 2026 in Alaska.

Impact & the Role of MTEC

If successful, this work brings continuous, ICU level monitoring to the places it has never reached: the far forward, the austere, the Arctic, letting a single medic safely watch more casualties, detect deterioration earlier, and make objective triage and evacuation decisions where minutes decide survival. The same capability is a workforce multiplier in the military health system and in civilian hospitals facing severe staffing shortages, and Sibel Health's dual use commitment means every advance funded for the warfighter also reaches patients in Copenhagen, Chicago, and the Global South. None of this happens without MTEC and its Government partners. MTEC has served as Sibel Health's front door to the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command, and the support of USAMRDC's Military Infectious Diseases Research Program (MIDRP), Military Operational Medicine Research Program (MOMRP), and Combat Casualty Care Research Program has accelerated the company's work from early algorithm development to validated, regulated, fielded technology. Sibel Health is proud to have advanced this effort under MTEC-20-12-COVID19-Diagnostics-046 (wearable diagnostics for COVID-19 detection) and MTEC-23-06-USAMRDC Multi-Topic-072, and remains fully committed to dual civilian and military use.