Knitted includes for health monitoring

An innovative system named WEALTHY is presented, where conducting and piezoresistive yarns are integrated in a knitted garment and used as sensor and electrode elements. The system allows the simultaneous recording of vital signs as well as parameters´ extrapolation and inter-signal elaboration that contribute to produce alert messages and synoptic patient table. The system aims to assist cardiac patients during rehabilitation phase, patients can be continuously followed during selected time intervals, such as during physical activity or occurrence of symptoms, to discover potential threats, to tailor the best medical treatment for long term care, and to generate appropriate alerts to patient, physician or emergency medical systems. The system can also assist professional workers subject to considerable physical and psychological stress and/or environmental and professional health risks. Finally, by providing direct feedback to the users, WEALTHY can act on the level of awareness and allow better control of their own condition.