Smart Textile
Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals are increasingly providing patients with remote patient monitoring devices (RPM). These wearable sensors monitor chronic conditions outside of a healthcare setting, which can help keep a watchful eye on conditions from high blood sugar to heart rate.
While the transition to RPM was accelerated by the need to keep patients away from locations experiencing high COVID-19 transmission, it was also fueled by patients’ desires to avoid multiple doctor’s visits, which can cut hours out of their days. Patients tend to be more receptive to RPM when the technology fits seamlessly into their lifestyles, as patients consider intrusiveness a cost, and factor significantly in their adoption decisions.
Chronolife’s Keesense RPM allows medical staff to oversee patients remotely via data transmitted by a smart shirt to an app via Bluetooth. The wearable allows for the continuous monitoring of six physiological parameters — electrocardiogram, heart rate, physical activity, respiration, skin temperature, and pulmonary impedance to detect edemas. The data from the t-shirt is then sent to a secure and certified server for live or time-delayed analysis by the user’s healthcare team. The t-shirt is designed for comfort and is reusable and washable.
Currently, Chronolife is testing Keesense on 40 patients with chronic heart failure. The Project has been supported by a pharmaceutical company and is part of the Digital Pharma Lab initiative. The study is ongoing and aims to determine whether the smart t-shirt provides useful information to medical practitioners in a real-world setting. By simultaneously and remotely monitoring multiple health indicators, healthcare professionals can know the status of their patients through the use of a telemonitoring data analysis and visualization platform, “Optified self”, developed by be-ys health solutions.
The program was launched across several French hospital centers, providing healthcare professionals with automatic and personalized health alerts as well as access to interpret the physiological parameters in order to make appropriate therapeutic decisions.
The program stems from the coronavirus pandemic and the need for healthcare providers to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions while healthcare centers experience a higher rate of hospital bed occupancy.
Chronolife will also work on a clinical investigation in partnership with one of the largest and historic hospitals in Europe. The new study will assess the added value of Chronolife’s RPM solution in monitoring oncology patients across age groups. Patients will be tracked for their adherence, comfort level and experience with the Keesense wearable.
RPM can transform the cancer patient experience by allowing patients to regain a sense of independence and normalcy in their lives. Our objective is to optimise the patient’s care pathway according to his or her state of health in order to adapt the frequency of consultations and chemotherapy sessions. That freedom from frequent visits to healthcare facilities will also likely address treatment-related depressions and boost overall positivity levels. The results of this study could also provide guidance for oncology physicians to navigate RPM options for early intervention for cancer patients, especially when it comes to prescribing medications, recommending dosage modifications, and providing patient education materials.
This solution allows the patient to lead an active daily life, whilst heart rate, respiratory data and other vital signs are continuously monitored. Comfortable and washable, the t-shirt requires very little technological know-how from the patient.
