"Project Runway" Meets Health Care

I had always assumed that shopping for Italian fashion was bad for me for any number of reasons...cruel combination of sticker shock and the fact that clothes in Italy seem to be sufficiently tight on me that they cut off blood flow to vital organs.  A recent post on WIRED's blog may lead me to think differently.

Smartex, an "e-textiles" company based outside of Pisa, is designing functional clothing that not only looks good but also captures key health data.  They've created a system called "WEALTHY," (for, "wearable health care system") that uses sensor-equipped textile interfaces to continuously monitor vital signs, wirelessly relay EKG and other data and contribute to intelligent decision-support systems for patients and caregivers.  Despite its built-in electrodes, temperature sensors and conductive leads, the company's tank top (shown here) feels completely normal and even looks halfway decent.

(...fortuitously, our wonderful blog coordinator, Kate Garrett, has temporarily relocated to Pisa this spring, and may be able to follow up with an investigative site visit to Smartex headquarters.)

I know at least several Project HealthDesign teams that have considered how biosensing fabrics and materials might help people track valuable health info. in the course of their daily lives and transmit that data to their PHRs, providers, etc. Or how introducing biosensors in to people's homes -- say, in mattresses to measure sleep patterns or whether a patient actually gets up on a given morning -- can supply valuable point-in-time and trend data that provides a richer, more useful picture of how a person managing a chronic disease is really doing.  The University of Rochester's Center for Future Health has done some leading work with smart bandage technology, as well as how to empower patients to better manage their health by building off of appliances and technologies already found in the home.

So it appears that, someday, "retail therapy" may pay off physically as well as emotionally. How broad are the potential applications, I wonder? And what might be the barriers to their widespread use?

Comments

[Cecelia Horwitz]

"Retail therapy" is definitely a strong possibility. As a former assistant buyer for Bloomingdale's in New York City, it brings to mind the consumer's expectation of having accessories which are fashionable yet timeless. This is what the Center for Future Health is learning as we interview heart failure consumers about form factors for technology to monitor their health. They are excited about what the technology can do for their quality of life and they want it to fit in with whatever they are wearing, so as not to call attention to their health issues. So far, from concept drawings they prefer sensors being imbedded in their watch or their shoes, or in a patch on their arm. In our next round of interviews, they will have actual physical representations to touch and discuss. One of the questions will be, where do you expect to purchase these? "Retail" channels will be among the choices.

[George Ferguson]

Thanks Susan for this article. As PHD participants probably know, I think sensing and monitoring technology go hand in hand with personal health records in terms of empowering people to manage their own health. At Rochester, we're mostly working the information management side of things in PHD, but much of the information we need to manage and share will ultimately come from automated and interactive systems. You simply can't make informed decisions without good data, and it's no good only getting good data when you're in the hospital.

As for the Smartex shirt that made it into Wired, this type of smart clothing has a long history. I remember seeing the Georgia Tech "Smart Shirt" at a DARPA meeting. This is now a company named Sensatex (http://www.sensatex.com/ ). Google reminds me that the "LifeShirt" is another similar product (http://www.vivometrics.com/ ). There are many more, particularly in the area of cardiac health. Some are sold as exercise or weight loss aids, perhaps to allay liability concerns.

One challenge for wearables is alluded to by Cecelia above. Most of the "smart shirts" are snug beyond what even an Italian designer would consider appropriate. This is usually necessary to put the sensors where they need to be (typically skin contact is required in specific locations, for current approaches). Thus current users of these tend to be people like athletes or military personnel who have very atypical forms of clothing. The technical challenge is therefore to be able to do the sensing at the required level of reliability despite using only relatively loose-fitting clothing such as people might naturally wear. Or do it with other types of personal devices that are naturally snug, such as jewelry (for example, check out the bracelets from BodyMedia: http://bodymedia.com/ ). Mind you, our users don't like snugness in general, I believe because of issues with swelling. So some smart people are working on that...

One last thought: smart sensing technology magnifies the importance of three themes that have come up in PHD. The first is the need to protect the privacy of people's soon-to-be voluminous personal health information while still enabling sharing. The second is that personal health records will need to include and support new types and sources of data. And the third is the need to address the liability issues surrounding assistive technologies if we're going to develop systems that help us use this information to improve our health.