The Health Innovation Exchange

Bio-Sensors on Clothes/Textiles - Health Informatics Assignment 1 topic

Clothes based sensors to monitor physiological parameters during daily activities.

I am interested in the various concepts involved in BioSensors. Flexible clothes chip could be used to monitor patients like Monitoring of diabetic patients, Monitoring elderly candidates etc.

BIOTEX EU-funded project that aimed to develop textile sensors to measure physiological parameters and the chemical composition of body fluids, with a particular interest in sweat.

Check this video about California University researchers working on Biosensors in Briefs

Inspiration Paper :Biosensing Textiles for Personalised Healthcare Management

Future: Textiles with Chips so called E-Textiles can be used in many Health related Industry. Future applications would also support Sports, Military operations etc.I would envision Textiles that support monitoring of disease like diabetes and would automatically infuse drugs according to current body glucose level.

Paper on Infusion of Insulin: Computer Aided Continuous Drug Infusion

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Comment by Bhavisha Daya on April 29, 2012 at 9:22: Hi Senthil, bio-sensors sound very interesting, the research that has gone into them is astounding. I was just wondering about the practical applications of these devices, especially the possible convenience of using them in emergency situations and possibly diversifying within the medical field so that individuals can take a greater role in their well-being, due to the integration of an information base.

Comment by Senthil on April 29, 2012 at 9:57: Bhavisha, bio-sensors leads me to research work 15-20 years back. Currently researchers are working at Nano-particle level to sense biological variances. Convenience is aimed for users to benefit from simple technology of fabrics without the need of specialist. Also the cost of continuous monitoring would be bought down sufficiently. Wider integration into existing technology plays key role for these kind of applications into health field. Though the performance of such certain bio-sensors is still under scrutiny which limits usage to certain emergency scenarios - like chemical and optical sensors for soldiers for wound detection.

I am exploring common sensor techniques which can be used for general public. Imagine a new fabric invented in 10 years time to control your diabetic levels which automatically infuses insulin based on your current health status. all we need to do is to just wear it..it might come with anti-bacterial repelling agents, so no need to wash it always fresh as new :)