“The printed electronics can last approximately 30 wash cycles, which is far better than conventional electrodes. “Separating the electronic and fabric elements allows for a more affordable, conventional textile printing process,” said Cormac Ó Conaire, Chief Design Officer at Design Partners. This data is combined with any recorded heart signals to provide the clinician with a fuller picture of the circumstances surrounding specific events, such as a change in heart rate due to exercise. Inside the brain is an onboard accelerometer and gyroscope. This can be easily removed for charging or washing. The “brain” of the device, meanwhile, is a small pod that has been specifically designed to sit in a small pocket on the shirt to enable further discretion. These maintain electrical contact between the garment and the skin, to ensure continuous, accurate data monitoring. Heart rate signals are captured via printed electrodes, situated beneath tailored compression points in the arms and waist.

As a result, the system can be worn discreetly under clothes causing no discomfort to the wearer, while results are captured via a doctor-patient dashboard, to enable further simplification. Natural movement is consequently inhibited, causing patient discomfort, and even impacting data veracity.ĭesign Partners has circumvented these issues by incorporating a carefully designed ECG circuit system into the fabric of the Viscero vest, using electronic ink. This device relies on taping “wet” electrodes to the chest, which are then plugged into a monitor carried by the patient in a pouch. The most used heart monitoring solution today is The Holter monitor. As a result, people affected must regularly have their heart rates monitored for between 24 to 72 hours at a time. alone, not even taking into account figures in the UK will have abnormal heartbeats by 2030 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In some cases, these can be life-threatening, and lead to blood clots, strokes, and heart failure. It’s estimated that annually as many as 12.1 million people in the U.S. The technology-enabled vest could replace the Holter monitor currently used by medical professionals as a non-invasive solution for heart monitoring. Product design and innovation agency, Design Partners, has created Viscero, a wearable ECG monitoring vest aimed at people with abnormal heartbeats (known as an “arrhythmia”).

Heart monitor vest