Continuous health status monitoring of elderly people using flexible skin patch sensors

Important results from the project

The aim was to consolidate collaboration between public institutions and industrial players in Sweden and Japan and focus on development and demonstration of wearable sensors and systems for monitoring elderly patients. Through the project, we progressively focused efforts onto a wearable sensing system for monitoring swelling (edema) with the goal of continuous and at-home monitoring of occurrence, status, and progression of diseases such as heart conditions and thrombosis.

Expected long term effects

The developed sensorized sock was able to realize real-time and home-based measurement of leg swelling in patients. This could help to follow the status of certain disease states, such as heart failure, or monitoring individuals with a high risk of clot formation in the lower legs. This is particularly relevant for elderly persons in both Swedish and Japanese contexts.

Approach and implementation

The project was a continuation of an earlier Vinnova-JST effort focusing on exploratory research into wearable monitoring and various sensing modalities. The core teams at Linköping U., RISE, and U. Tokyo, moved into this project with the addition of new key partners, in particular Cuviva (Sweden) and Xenoma (Japan). Based on our system demonstration in a clinical setting, and deep and effective collaboration between Swedish and Japanese partners, we feel that the project was a major success.