SAN DIEGO: A team of US scientists has
designed some new men’s briefs that may be comfortable, durable and even
stylish but, unlike most underpants, may be able to save lives.
Printed on the waistband and in constant contact with the skin is an
electronic biosensor, designed to measure blood pressure, heart rate and other
vital signs.
The technology, developed by nano-engineering professor
Joseph Wang of University of California San Diego and his team, breaks new
ground in the field of intelligent textiles and is part of shift in focus in
healthcare from hospital-based treatment to home-based management.
The method is similar to conventional screen-printing although the
ink contains carbon electrodes. The project is being funded by the US military
with American troops likely to be the first recipients.
“This
specific project involves monitoring the injury of soldiers during battlefield
surgery and the goal is to develop minimally invasive sensors that can locate,
in the field, and identify the type of injury,” Wang said.
Ultimately, the biosensor that detects an injury will also be able to
direct the release of drugs to relieve pain and even treat the wound. But the
technology’s range of application goes beyond the military.
“We envision all the trend of personalized medicine for remote
monitoring of the elderly at home, monitoring a wide range of biomedical
markers, like cardiac markers, alerting for any potential stroke, diabetic
changes and other changes related to other biomedical scenario,” said
Wang.
Wearable biosensors can also provide valuable information to
athletes or even measure blood alcohol levels.
But Wang said it
could be some time before these smart underpants are worn by soldiers in the
field as more work is needed to ensure these monitoring systems are robust and
durable enough to cope with the wearer’s daily activity.
However he said there are growing needs for developing reliable,
wearable healthcare monitoring systems.
“While
clothing-integrated electrochemical sensors hold considerable promise for future
healthcare, military or sport applications, such non-invasive textile-based
sensing requires proper attention to key challenges of sample delivery to the
electrode surface and of sensor calibration and interconnection,”
Wang’s team said in a report published in The Royal Society of Chemistry
journal.
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