White Paper: A comparative Perspective on Wearables Key Features for Advanced Respiratory Monitoring

August 12, 2020

Over the last few weeks, the global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has dramatically increased, leading to critically elevated hospitalization rates and emergency room overcrowding [1]. Shortage of beds and equipment in addition to staff exhaustion are aggravating the already fragile and precarious situation in hospitals [2–4]. This setting has created an unprecedented strain on healthcare systems, thereby compromising the quality of patient care [2,4]. Despite the concerted efforts of scientists and clinicians to find an effective vaccine, this health crisis will likely persist longer than expected [5]. Therefore, all efforts should be directed to confirm and deploy approaches to relieve healthcare systems before they crumble under pressure [3,4,6,7]. One such strategy is the early recognition of clinical deterioration, which limits the spread of the disease and reduces unnecessary hospital demands [4].

A growing body of evidence supports the clinical relevance of respiratory rate (RR) as a key predictor for adverse health outcomes [8–11]. In patients affected by COVID-19, an increase of RR can be a warning sign for patient deterioration and criteria for ICU transfer [12]. Massaroni et al. suggested that the current situation has ironically generated the perfect conditions for wearables to demonstrate their worth and capabilities to alleviate caregivers’ workload in this time of crisis. According to the authors, digital health respiratory monitoring technologies can provide relevant data to facilitate effective remote triage, diagnosis and symptoms monitoring. This will positively impact care assistance for self-isolated patients [13]. A wide variety of technologies for RR monitoring have been developed, tested and are commercially available [14–16]. However, these portable health technologies are not all comparable in terms of design, validity and usability [14–19].

Hexoskin stands out against other contenders in the respiratory field as a result of its strong presence in research publications, but also in consequence of the clinical validation of its biometric data [14,16]. Hexoskin supports professionals & researchers to improve their standards of care and research by providing cutting edge health sensors, and state-of-the-art health data management & analysis software.

To learn more about Hexoskin’s digital health solutions for RR monitoring, we invite you to download our latest White Paper titled: A comparative Perspective on Wearables Key Features for Advanced Respiratory Monitoring. In this White Paper, we explore:

• The speculative world of emerging respiratory monitoring technologies.
• The key features for advanced respiratory monitoring.
• Hexoskin’s unique capabilities to remotely monitor respiratory volumes and patterns through rich and high-resolution respiratory data integrated with the Hexoskin’s end-to-end platform (i.e. interoperable software solutions, secure and private infrastructure and machine learning services) to support research and professional organizations.

References:

1. World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report-197. 2020.
2. Mishra S. Hospital overcrowding. Western Journal of Medicine 2001 ; 174 : 170–170.
3. Shoukat A, Wells CR, Langley JM, et al. Projecting demand for critical care beds during COVID-19 outbreaks in Canada. CMAJ 2020 ; 192 : E489–E496.
4. Whiteside T, Kane E, Aljohani B, et al. Redesigning emergency department operations amidst a viral pandemic. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine 2020 ; 38 : 1448–1453.
5. Adhanom Ghebreyesus T. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 3 August 2020. 2020.
6. Government of Canada. The “smart shirts” helping reduce the pressure COVID-19 is putting on hospitals. 2020.
7. Verelst F, Kuylen E, Beutels P. Indications for healthcare surge capacity in European countries facing an exponential increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, March 2020. Eurosurveillance 2020 ; 25.
8. Cretikos MA, Bellomo R, Hillman K, et al. Respiratory rate: the neglected vital sign. Medical Journal of Australia 2008 ; 188 : 657–659.
9. Garrido D, Assioun JJ, Keshishyan A, et al. Respiratory Rate Variability as a Prognostic Factor in Hospitalized Patients Transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Cureus 2018.
10. Keshvani N, Berger K, Gupta A, et al. Improving Respiratory Rate Accuracy in the Hospital: A Quality Improvement Initiative. J Hosp Med 2019 ; 14 : 673–677.
11. Van Diest I, Thayer JF, Vandeputte B, et al. Anxiety and respiratory variability. Physiology & Behavior 2006 ; 89 : 189–195.
12. Sun Q, Qiu H, Huang M, et al. Lower mortality of COVID-19 by early recognition and intervention: experience from Jiangsu Province. Ann. Intensive Care 2020 ; 10 : 33.
13. Massaroni C, Nicolò A, Schena E, et al. Remote Respiratory Monitoring in the Time of COVID-19. Front. Physiol. 2020 ; 11 : 635.
14. Khundaqji H, Hing W, Furness J, et al. Smart Shirts for Monitoring Physiological Parameters: Scoping Review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020 ; 8 : e18092.
15. Massaroni C, Nicolò A, Lo Presti D, et al. Contact-Based Methods for Measuring Respiratory Rate. Sensors 2019 ; 19 : 908.
16. Soon S, Svavarsdottir H, Downey C, et al. Wearable devices for remote vital signs monitoring in the outpatient setting: an overview of the field. BMJ Innov 2020 ; 6 : 55–71.
17. Aliverti A. Wearable technology: role in respiratory health and disease. Breathe 2017 ; 13 : e27–e36.
18. Düking P, Hotho A, Holmberg H-C, et al. Comparison of Non-Invasive Individual Monitoring of the Training and Health of Athletes with Commercially Available Wearable Technologies. Front. Physiol. 2016 ; 7.
19. Peake JM, Kerr G, Sullivan JP. A Critical Review of Consumer Wearables, Mobile Applications, and Equipment for Providing Biofeedback, Monitoring Stress, and Sleep in Physically Active Populations. Front. Physiol. 2018 ; 9 : 743