NEW YORK, NY, December 04, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Vaaji, a pioneer in smart pharmaceutical therapeutics, today announced the successful completion of its pilot study conducted in collaboration with the Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory (PennAITech) at the University of Pennsylvania.
The exploratory study, part of the AI/Tech + Aging (A2) Collective funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), achieved 100% technical accuracy in monitoring patch status. These results validate Vaaji's proprietary smart patch system as a robust tool with the potential to significantly improve safety in transdermal drug delivery.
Addressing a Critical Safety Gap
Transdermal patches are a vital delivery mechanism for medications treating Alzheimer's (such as rivastigmine), Parkinson's, and pain management. However, in real-world scenarios, patients or overwhelmed caregivers may accidentally apply a new patch without removing the old one ("patch stacking") or forget applications entirely. In active therapy, this can lead to ineffective treatment or potentially life-threatening overdoses.
Vaaji is developing a solution to transform standard passive patches into "smart" therapeutics. By leveraging advanced Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and Artificial Intelligence, the system is designed to provide real-time visibility into medication adherence.
Key Study Findings
The proof-of-concept study enrolled 51 healthy volunteers using placebo patches to evaluate the system's detection capabilities against manual oversight. The results confirmed the platform's technical reliability:
100% Agreement: The study achieved a perfect correlation between Vaaji's remote monitoring data and site investigator records (REDCap), matching the "gold standard" of direct human supervision.
Error Detection Capability: The system successfully identified simulated "patch stacking" (application of multiple patches) in real-time. This validates the core technology required to prevent overdose events in future clinical applications.
Usability Validation: The technology integrated smoothly into the volunteers' daily routines, supporting the feasibility of the system for home-based care.
Executive Commentary
"This study provides the first real-world evidence that our smart patch platform can deliver perfect accuracy in detecting patch application errors—a critical step toward enhancing patient safety in Alzheimer's care. We have proven that the underlying technology is robust, scalable, and ready for further development."
— Patrick Mercier, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD and Chief Technical Advisor at Vaaji
"The 100% agreement between remote monitoring and site investigator records is a landmark result for this early-stage development. It demonstrates that our system has the potential to match human oversight, paving the way for safer, smarter home care solutions."
— William Z. Potter, MD, PhD, co-Principal Investigator and Chief Scientific Advisor at Vaaji
"With the aging population growing rapidly, the need for technologies that enable safe, independent living is more urgent than ever. We are grateful for the support of the A2 Collective, PennAITech, and the NIA. These results strengthen our commitment to bringing these benefits to patients and caregivers."
— Sandeep Patil, MD, PhD, Co-founder of Vaaji
Future Outlook
The data from this pilot study will inform Vaaji's clinical and regulatory strategy as the company advances toward broader clinical trials involving active therapeutics. The company aims to establish its smart monitoring platform as a new safety standard for high-risk transdermal medications.
For more information on Vaaji's patient-centric platform, visit www.vaaji.io.
Funding Disclaimer: The project described is supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1-P30-AG-073105-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About The AI/Tech + Aging (A2) Collective
The pilot awards competition will award $40 million over 5 years to promising pilot projects that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and other transformative technologies to support healthy aging and persons living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) and their caregivers. The A2 Collective represents the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratories for Aging Research (AITC) program, which is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
About Vaaji
Vaaji is a pharmaceutical and digital health company dedicated to transforming the safety and well-being of patients using transdermal therapeutic patches. Its core innovation is the development of individually trackable, smart transdermal therapeutics designed to detect patch application errors in real-time. Vaaji's patented patient-centric platform technology leverages an IoT-based monitoring system to ensure the best possible care for transdermal therapeutics users.
Media Contact
Email: hello@vaaji.io
Website: www.vaaji.io
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