Bed sheets monitor sleeper's heart
Updated on 25 February 2008
Bed sheets that monitor a sleeper's heart activity and breathing are to be tested as part of a major new European research programme.
Scientists involved in the project will also try out hi-tech clothing fitted with heart sensors.
The HeartCycle project is a 20.7 million euro (£15.6 million) programme aimed at improving the management of heart patients using novel telemonitoring systems.
Led by the Dutch company Royal Philips Electronics, it will employ specially designed vests with embedded electrodes that record heart rate unobtrusively.
Sensors will also be placed in patients' beds, incorporated into sheets and pillow cases.
Data will be sent wirelessly from the sensors to a handheld computer at the bedside.
HeartCycle, one of the largest biomedical and healthcare research projects ever undertaken within the EU, will involve 18 research, academic, industrial and medical organisations from nine different countries, including the UK.
Initially the study will evaluate how effective telemonitoring devices are at spotting early warning signs of problems in patients with heart failure. Ultimately, it is hoped the technology will improve patient compliance with medication and lifestyle therapies.
The project is due to start next month and run for four years. It emerged out of a previous research programme called MyHeart which identified home-based disease management as potentially beneficial.
HeartCycle aims to extend the concept to specific patient groups.
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