A collaborative effort by a French medical device company (Bioserenity), a British epilepsy organization (Epilepsy Action), and a French epilepsy organization (Efappe) has led to the first of a kind smart clothing system and companion app that help monitor and diagnose epilepsy. Conventional epilepsy diagnosis and treatment rely on seizure recordings through fixed monitoring systems only available in a hospital setting. Due to the limited accessibility of these fixed systems, most often the patients’ seizures are not recorded. The lack of seizure information for a patient leads to suboptimal diagnosis and treatment. WEMU smartwear aims to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, reduce diagnostic time, and help design a more accurate drug regimen for the patient.
The WEMU system consists of a smart shirt and a smart hat with embedded dry-sensors. These sensors constantly monitor the patient’s cardiac, muscle and brain activities. The sensors are connected to a rechargeable battery pack through embedded electronic circuitry. The physiological data obtained from the sensors is transmitted to a smartphone app through low energy Bluetooth. The smartphone app analyzes the received data and allows the data to be visualized by the patient or a healthcare professional. The data from the smartphone can also be uploaded, through a secure connection, to a cloud system to allow for a doctor to view the data remotely. In addition to improving the diagnosis and treatment for patients, the WEMU system also allows for more accurate information on the occurrences of seizures that is valuable to the epilepsy research community.
The makers of WEMU are now running an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to further develop the product and take it to mass production.
Indiegogo page: WEMU: A revolution in epilepsy monitoring and diagnosis…