VitalWear creates smart garments with woven optical fiber sensors that continuously monitor pressure and skin temperature at the patient’s interface. The system autonomously analyzes the data, sends real‑time alerts to clinicians for early pressure ulcer risk, and stores metrics in the cloud for ongoing tracking, helping hospitals and care facilities reduce ulcer incidence and unnecessary repositioning.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Patients who are immobilized or have reduced skin sensation are at high risk of developing pressure ulcers, which require frequent manual repositioning by nurses to prevent. Current monitoring methods rely on intermittent checks and do not provide continuous, objective data on pressure and skin temperature, leading to delayed detection and increased care costs.
Solution
VitalWear embeds optical fiber sensors into textile garments to create smart clothing that continuously measures pressure and temperature at the skin interface. The integrated sensors autonomously analyze the data to identify early physiological signs of pressure ulcer formation, alerting clinicians before tissue damage becomes irreversible. By delivering real‑time risk assessments, the system enables targeted repositioning only when needed, reducing unnecessary nurse interventions and lowering the incidence of ulcers. The technology operates without requiring additional actions from staff, fitting seamlessly into existing care workflows while providing objective, quantifiable metrics for patient monitoring.
Target Audience
Primary customers are hospitals, long‑term care facilities, and home‑care providers that manage immobilized or high‑risk patients requiring pressure ulcer prevention.
Features
- Optical fiber sensor network woven into fabric for high‑resolution pressure and temperature sensing
- Continuous, autonomous data acquisition and on‑board analysis to detect early ulcer risk
- Real‑time alerts integrated with clinical workflows to guide timely patient repositioning
- Non‑invasive, washable textile design compatible with standard hospital bedding and garments
- Cloud‑enabled data storage for longitudinal tracking and analytics without manual data entry