Wearable fabric necklace for monitoring infant vital signs during Kangaroo Mother Care
This technology is a fabric-based wearable technology that can monitor the chest-to-chest skin contact duration and the infant’s respiration and heart rate during Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC).
Unmet Need: Reliable monitoring of infant vital signs without sensors
Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) is an effective intervention for preterm and full-term infants that involves prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the baby and a caregiver. Accurate, continuous monitoring of KMC duration and vital signs is important for understanding infant health status. Current methods of measuring Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) duration and vital signs are either manual and prone to errors or involve placing rigid sensors and wires on the infant’s skin, which can cause skin breakdown. Although wearable devices (e.g., Apple Watch, KardiaMobile) offer 1-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, they are unable to monitor ECG signals continuously.
The Technology: A wearable fabric-based infant vital sign monitoring platform
This technology is a fabric-based wearable technology that can monitor the chest-to-chest skin contact duration and the infant’s respiration rate and heart rate during Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). The device is a soft fabric necklace worn by the caregiver on their chest skin. By detecting the presence of mixed electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, this device can monitor the chest-to-chest contact duration along with the infant’s respiration and heart rates. The technology’s ability to distinguish ECG signals between the caregiver and infant can be used to monitor the infant’s vital signs and can overcome the need for placing sensors on the infant’s body.
Applications:
- Medical monitoring of caregiver and infant electrocardiogram (ECG) signals
- Continual ECG signal monitoring
- Early warning system for detecting abnormalities in ECG signals
- Telemedicine and remote health monitoring
- Monitoring sleep, post-discharge, maternal health, child development, atrial fibrillation detection, coronary heart disease, stress
Advantages:
- Soft, comfortable, and skin-friendly
- Denoises signals between caregiver and infant
- Worn by the caregiver, overcoming the need for placing sensors on the infant
- Accurate and reliable
- Continuously monitors Kangaroo Mother Care duration and vital signs
Lead Inventor:
Patent Information:
Patent Pending
Related Publications:
Tech Ventures Reference:
IR CU24338
Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu