Wearable health systems: from smart technologies to real applications Lymberis A, Gatzoulis L European Commission, Information Society and Media Directorate- Gen eral m Yumiko Kimezawa November 1, 2012RPR1

Outline Background User Needs and Application Drivers State-of-the-art and on going R&D in WHS Research Trends and Challenges in WHS Conclusion November 1, 2012RPR2

Background Personal Health Systems (PHS) -A relatively new concept, introduced in the late 1990s -Support of the trend arisen mainly from the need to meet major socioeconomic challenges related to the ageing population -Enabled by progress in science and technologies like biomedical sciences, micro- and nanotechnologies as well as ICT November 1, 2012RPR3

User Needs and Application Drivers Wearable Health Systems (WHS) -A specific category of PHS -Integrated systems on body-worn platform -Ambitious objective “affordable and interactive healthcare, anyplace, anytime for anyone” Origin of WHS -The need to provide care outside hospitals, into citizens’ daily living environments November 1, 2012RPR4

WHS are ideal platform to meet following needs -Monitoring of patients over extensive period of time -Issue of healthcare cost -Issue of disease management -Rising of requirement of prolonged medical care and the prevalence of chronic disease by increasing of the proportion of elderly people November 1, 2012RPR5 User Needs and Application Drivers Developing WHS that can successfully satisfy the needs mentioned above is a major, multi-face challenge

Rapid increase of interest in new sensing and monitoring devices for healthcare Use of wearable, wireless devices and sensor networks for clinical applications Recent advances in microprocessors, microelectronics and integration in materials have led to many prototype systems Increased system functionality and autonomy are necessary, and research has also been undertaken in these direction November 1, 2012RPR6 State-of-the-art and on going R&D in WHS

Research and development (R&D) in WHS -Driven by two different but complementary approaches Application-pull -Stemming from an increased user demand for new solutions in healthcare Technology-push -Technological innovations lead to new system and products for healthcare solution November 1, 2012RPR7 Research Trends and Challenges in WHS

Physiological monitoring (so far) -Measurement of vital signals like ECG, heart rate, respiratory rate and skin temperature Biomedical monitoring (Trend) -Assessment of a person’s health status, the status of his/her immune system, stress condition, etc by sampling body fluid analyte November 1, 2012RPR8

Conclusion Several major issues remain to be resolved before WHS become integrated in healthcare practice  Techniques for on-body sensing, context awareness, user- friendliness, power autonomy, intelligent data processing and interaction with professional medical services  The need of further research in signal processing  Requirement of intelligent algorithm to correlate and interpret data from multiple sensors November 1, 2012RPR9

November 1, 2012RPR10

Continuous measurement and control of glucose concentration in subjects with type 1 diabetes, enabling the provision of better adjustment of insulin dosage Personal ECG Monitor for early detection and management of cardiac events. This includes recording, storage and synthesis of standard 12-lead ECGs, self-adaptive data processing and decision-making techniques and generation of alarm messages. Smart glove for non-invasive multi-parametric measurements of autonomous nervous system. This system enables the study of cognitive and physical status, the response to odour, speech and vision, the comparison with conscious and verbal indications as well as mental training. Personal mobile health service platform for vital signs monitoring based on a Body Area Network, utilising the next generation of public 3G wireless networks Wireless-enabled garment with embedded textile sensors, for simultaneous acquisition and continuous monitoring of biomedical signs like ECG, respiration, EMG and activity November 1, 2012RPR11 State-of-the-art and on going R&D in WHS

Conclusion R&D on WHS was motivated by the need respond to a number of healthcare challenges like -Reducing healthcare costs while maintaining high quality of care -Provide easy access to care to demanding citizens from anyplace, at anytime -Shift the focus of healthcare from treatment to prevention and early diagnosis through wellness programs November 1, 2012RPR12