
Clothing to Remotely Connect to Care
Healthcare monitoring through high-tech textiles.
Project Overview
The Problem
One of the critical steps taken to prepare for and manage the COVID-19 pandemic was reducing the number of non-critical patients in hospitals.
For example, hospital patients recovering from operations were discharged earlier than usual and asked to continue the recovery process at home. In other cases, operations and procedures were cancelled. As a result, these patients are managing their health conditions at home with the added challenges of physical distancing and self-isolation.
Virtual medicine using telephone or video conferencing have been used, but they rely on self-reporting by the patient. Internet-based solutions may also exclude at-risk citizens, such as cognitively or physically impaired individuals.