S Sibrecht Bouwstra

Smart Jacket Design for Neonatal Monitoring with Wearable Sensors

Critically ill new born babies admitted at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are extremely tiny and vulnerable to external disturbance. Smart Jacket proposed in this paper is the vision of a wearable unobtrusive continuous monitoring system realized by body sensor networks (BSN) and wireless communication. The smart jacket aims for providing reliable health monitoring as well as a comfortable clinical environment for neonatal care and parent-child interaction. We present the first version of the neonatal jacket that enables ECG measurement by textile electrodes. We also explore a new solution for skin-contact challenges that textile electrodes pose. The jacket is expandable with new wearable technologies and has aesthetics that appeal to parents and medical staff. An iterative design process in close contact with the users and experts lead to a balanced integration of technology, user focus and aesthetics. We demonstrate the prototype and the experimental results obtained in clinical setting.

Sensor integration for perinatology research

The number of high-risk pregnancies and premature births is increasing due to the steadily higher age at which women get pregnant. The long-term quality of life of the neonates and their families depends increasingly critically on the ability to monitor the health status of mother and child accurately, continuously and unobtrusively throughout the perinatal period. Advances in sensor integration have enabled the creation of non-invasive solutions to improve the healthcare of the pregnant woman, and her child before, during and after delivery. In this paper, we present the design work of a smart jacket integrated with textile sensors for neonatal monitoring and software architecture of advanced sensor integration for delivery simulator. A balanced integration of technology, user focuses and design aspects is achieved. Prototypes are built for demonstrating the design concept and the experimental results are obtained in clinical settings.

Design of an Integrated Sensor Platform for Vital Sign Monitoring of Newborn Infants at Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Continuous health status monitoring and advances in medical treatments have resulted in a significant increase of survival rate in critically ill infants admitted into Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs). The quality of life and long-term health prospects of the neonates depend increasingly on the reliability and comfort of the monitoring systems. In this paper, we present the design work of a smart jacket for vital sign monitoring of neonates at a NICU. The design represents a unique integration of sensor technology, user focus and design aspects. Textile sensors, a reflectance pulse oximeter and a wearable temperature sensor were proposed to be embedded into the smart jacket. Location of the sensor, materials and appearance were designed to optimize the functionality, patient comfort and the possibilities for aesthetic features. Prototypes were built for demonstrating the design concept and experimental results were obtained from tests on premature babies at the NICU of Maxima Medical Centre (MMC) in Veldhoven, the Netherlands.

Intelligent Design for Neonatal Monitoring with Wearable Sensors

Neonatal monitoring refers to the monitoring of vital physiological parameters of premature infants, full term infants that are critically ill, and a combination thereof. Babies that are born after a pregnancy lasting 37 weeks or less are typically considered premature. Critically ill neonates are a special group of patients that consist of premature infants who may suffer from diseases that are mainly caused by immaturity of their organs, and full term infants, who become severely ill during or immediately after birth. In particular, these premature infants can weigh as little as 500g with a size of a palm and are highly vulnerable to external disturbances. Critically ill newborn infants are normally admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for treatment by neonatologists and specialized nurses. Continuous health monitoring for the neonates provides crucial parameters for early detection of in adverted events (such as cessation of breathing, heart rhythm disturbances and drop in blood oxygen saturation), and possible complications (such as seizures). Immediate action based on this detection increases survival rates and positively supports further development of the neonates. Advances in medical treatments over the last decades resulted in a significant increase of survival. As a result, neonates born after 25 weeks of pregnancy can survive with adequate medical care and appropriate medical care in NICU (Costeloe et al., 2000). Encouraged by this success NICUs are populated by a large proportion of infants, born after very short gestational age. Survival and long-term health prospects strongly depend on medical care and reliable and comfortable health-status monitoring systems. In the last decades several important treatment modalities emerged that had a substantial impact on the mortality of prematurely born infants. However there is a concomitant increase of neurobehavioral problems on long-term follow-up (Perlman, 2001; Hack & Fanaroff, 1999; Chapieski & Evankovitch, 1997). Follow-up studies indicate that preterm infants show more developmental delay compared to their full-term peers. More than 50% of them show deficits in their further development, such as visual-motor integration problems, motor impairments, speech and language delay, behavioral, attention, and learning problems (Marlow et al. 2007). Medical conditions including chronic lung disease, apnea and bradycardia, transient thyroid dysfunction, jaundice and nutritional deficiencies, are potential contributing factors. In addition infants in a busy NICU are often exposed to stressful environmental conditions. Examples are the attachment to multiple monitoring Source: Intelligent and Biosensors, Book edited by: Vernon S. Somerset, ISBN 978-953-7619-58-9, pp. 386, January 2010, INTECH, Croatia, downloaded from SCIYO.COM

Design of Wireless Sensor System for Neonatal Monitoring

In this paper, we present the application of wireless sensor technology and the advantages it will inherently have for neonatal care and monitoring at Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). An electrocardiography (ECG) readout board and a wireless transceiver module developed by IMEC at the Holst Centre in the Netherlands are embedded in the proposed wireless sensor systems in combination with the signal processing and software interface developed at the Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Through development of this prototype system, we opt to ensure correct data transmission, detection and display. The wireless system is designed to be suitable for integration into non-invasive monitoring platforms such as a smart neonatal jacket developed at TU/e. Experiments at Maxima Medical Centre (MMC) in Veldhoven, the Netherlands demonstrate the wireless transmission of ECG data from the smart jacket integrated with textile electrodes.

Sensors, actuators and computing systems for smart textiles for protection

Electronic systems with sensors and actuators are enablers for increasing the protection level of textile appliances. Apparel and many other textiles are close to the human body and are part of numerous professional and home routines and tasks. This means that textiles are positioned in our daily life in locations where they can act extremely well for protective purposes by means of monitoring and being responsive. Intelligence created by electronics starts with sensors and actuators integrated into the textile to make it responsive. In addition, a power system, interconnect and processing logic are needed. Some characteristic problems encountered with sensing human parameters can be solved by smart topologies and sensor arrangements.

Designing for reliable textile neonatal ECG monitoring using multi-sensor recordings

When designing an ECG monitoring system embedded with textile electrodes for comfort, it is challenging to ensure reliable monitoring, because textile electrodes suffer from motion artifacts and incidental poor signal quality. For the design of a comfortable monitoring system for prematurely born babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), we propose the concepts of ‘diversity measurement’ and ‘context awareness’ to improve reliability. Clinical multi-modal sensor data was collected in the NICU with the Smart Jacket connected to a state-of-the-art amplifier. We found that the ECG signals quality varied among sensors and varied over time, and found correlations between ECG signal, acceleration data, and context, which supports the feasibility of the concepts. Our explorative system level approach has lead to design parameters and meta-insights into the role of clinical validation in the design process.