Smart grids, smart houses ... smart clothes?

While we’ve grown accustomed to all the emphasis on smart technology these days — smart grids, smart meters, smart houses and so on — smart clothing is one topic we hadn’t really given much thought to.

Not so for a team of EU-funded researchers, who have embedded sensing devices into textiles that can be used to create smart clothes. Such garments could help physicians keep an constant eye on rehabilitating patients in a strategy described as “remote health monitoring with (a) wearable non-invasive mobile system.”

The so-called “Healthware” research was supported with €990,000 in funding from the EU’s eTEN programme.

“Remote monitoring is ideally suited to patients suffering from chronic diseases or recovering from an incident, such as a heart attack, who would otherwise have to spend longer in hospital or visit their doctor more frequently for checkups,” said Theodore Vontetsianos, the head of the e-Health Unit at Sotiria Chest Diseases Hospital in Athens.

Currently, remote health monitoring relies on sensors that are strapped to patients’ bodies and connected to large pieces of equipment. “Healthware” garments, on the other hand, could send data from the sensors to Portable Patient Units (PPUs), which would then transmit the patient’s information to doctors via a secure mobile connection.

“By embedding the sensors in a vest that patients feel comfortable wearing, and requiring only a mobile phone-sized device to gather and transmit the information, the system empowers patients to be more active and independent while letting caregivers check on them at any time or in any place as necessary,” Vontetsianos said.

Vontetsianos’ team at Sotiria Hospital conducted a number of trials, and found that patients felt comfortable using the technology. The system also improved both patient comfort and quality of care, the researchers concluded.

While a small-scale deployment of Healthware carries a steep cost, the price could go down considerably if the sensor-equipped clothing and other equipment could be mass-produced for widespread use, according to Alexis Milsis, Sotiria e-Health unit research engineer. Ultimately, that could help bring down expenses for healthcare providers.