News

Hexoskin at Biosensors for Medical Wearables in Boston: Overcoming Challenges in Long-Term Medical Monitoring

Hexoskin's co-founder and CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier has been invited to talk about long-term vital signs monitoring at the Biosensors for Medical Wearables Conference in Boston on October 25th.

Vital signs sensors traditionally used for cardiac and respiratory monitoring involve adhesives or tape to keep the sensors in place on the skin. Experience has shown there's a tradeoff between monitoring duration (1 to 14 days), and adhesive agressiveness, which can lead to skin rashes or wounds.

There's now a safer and more convenient way for patients to record long-term vital signs data needed for diagnosis or to guide care or rehabilitation: smart textiles. Hexoskin users have successfully demonstrated the advantages of using a form factor that patients like. Researchers have documented it in over 200 scientific papers.

In his talk, Fournier will describe medical applications of smart textile sensors for patients with cardiac and respiratory diseases, as well as opportunities in research in mental health and rare diseases. He will also share unique insights into Hexoskin's experience in space medicine research aboard the International Space Station.

Please reach out for more information: contact@hexoskin.com

Hexoskin Talks Space Medicine at the Healthcare without Boundaries Colloquium

Biomedical researcher Héloïse Auger will talk about Hexoskin's work in space medicine, Astroskin wearable sensors, and artificial intelligence for automated diagnostics at the Healthcare without Boundaries Colloquium this week on June 1-2. Registration is available on Eventbrite: Healthcare without Boundaries Colloquium

Hexoskin has been collaborating with the Canadian Space Agency since 2011 on the development of medical technologies that can be used for human spaceflight. Devices that can record health data passively, like the Astroskin, create an opportunity to develop autonomous medical systems using clinical rules and artificial intelligence to support long-term space missions beyond low Earth orbit.

Astrokin wearable sensors worn by Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques in the International Space Station, January 2019
Are you working on a research project that requires monitoring cardiorespiratory activity in real-life settings? Contact us to discuss your objectives and see how Astroskin or Hexoskin could be useful! 

Now 100+ Publications with Hexoskin!

Hexoskin Health Sensors - Now 100 Publications and Validations - 2020Today Hexoskin has reached an important milestone. The Hexoskin Connected Health Platform has been used in over 100 scientific & peer-reviewed publications thanks to our community of researchers and scientists dedicated to promoting safe and effective remote monitoring technologies!

But who’s counting? Actually... we do! Our Hexoskin Smart Clothing solutions benefit from the most validation and publications in the industry, accounting for more than all the smart clothing competition combined.

A Connected Health Platform Fit for Various Research Fields

The publications and validations studies cover a wide range of fields of study from scientific validations of the Hexoskin Cardiac, Pulmonary, and Activity smart clothing sensors; to various subjects and health applications.

Hexoskin Connected Health Platform - Fields of Research and Clinical Validation

It’s been such a wonderful experience to reach this milestone and we are thankful for the trust placed in our Hexoskin Connected Health Solutions. We can’t wait to continue this journey to improve evidence-based practice for patients and professionals by bringing science to new levels! 

Government of Canada confirmed Canada's commitment to Nasa Lunar Gateway program

The government of Canada confirmed today, Thursday, February 28, 2019, Canada's commitment to the Lunar Gateway space mission led by the United States, to give Canada's space program a new momentum. The Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau announced historic investments in Canada’s space program. The Government of Canada will invest $2.05 billion over 24 years for Canada's space program. It will help grow innovative Canadian companies of all sizes by supporting the development of new digital and artificial intelligence-based technologies, and by opening new markets for Canadian businesses (Prime Minister's Office).

This investment will also give Canadian astronauts the opportunity to participate in missions to space and our scientists a chance to conduct cutting-edge research that cannot be done on Earth.

At Hexoskin, since we started working with Canadian Space Agency in 2011, we designed medical monitoring systems with the goal of fulfilling the autonomy requirements of future missions to the Moon and Mars. The spillover effects of space exploration projects are applicable beyond human spaceflight and find applications on earth that benefit humanity.

The technologies we're developing will allow a greater number of people to access regular care, especially patients with chronic cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The software being developed for medical autonomous systems has the potential to deliver automated health services, affordable and accessible 24/7.

After today's announcement, we hope that Hexoskin will be able to contribute to future missions to the Moon, by supplying innovative medical technologies for crew members taking the trip.

 

Astroskin Now Available - Pushes the Boundaries
 of Health Research on Earth and in Space!

It is with a lot of excitement that Hexoskin announces today the availability of the Astroskin, a space-grade smart garment aiming to revolutionize the collection of real-world evidence for healthcare research on Earth and in Space!

The Astroskin system is based on the Bio-Monitor designed for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to monitor the astronauts’ health in space on the International Space Station (ISS). The CSA’s Bio-Monitor will be operational in space and available for all ISS participating countries to conduct space research for the next five years. It is scheduled to launch in space on December 4, 2018, aboard SpaceX’s Dragon cargo vehicle from Florida.

Aerospace, Security & Defense, Academic, Pharmaceuticals and Health Research organizations can now order the Astroskin system for their projects.

The Astroskin smart garments are available in a wide range of sizes for men & women. The machine-washable garments include state-of-the-art monitoring of blood pressure, pulse oximetry, 3-lead ECG, respiration, skin temperature, and activity sensors for 48 hours of continuous real-time monitoring. The end-to-end system includes iOS apps for iPhones & iPads, data synchronization software, and a web dashboard. Hexoskin provides custom software, data hosting, data science & AI services to suit the most stringent requirements of any organization. 

Download Astroskin Product Specifications



HEXOSKIN PRESENTS
ASTROSKIN / BIO-MONTOR

«This system, which includes a smart shirt and dedicated tablet application, will help keep an eye on astronauts' health and enable new science by continuously measuring physiological data. [...] The system is designed to easily send information to the ground, where scientists can monitor the astronauts' health around the clock as they orbit the planet». (Canadian Space Agency. 2018)

 

Since 2006, Hexoskin’s mission is to develop sensors and health data infrastructure to generate clinical grade real-world evidence. The Astroskin demonstrates once again Hexoskin’s leadership in providing the industry leading sensors, software, and AI to push further our understanding of human physiology on earth and in space.

Contact our team to order Astroskin

Hexoskin Presents Tools for Chronic Care at the AI in Healthcare Summit in San Francisco

Hexoskin is attending the AI in Healthcare Summit in San Francisco this week to present its connected health platform and healthcare AI architecture on Monday, June 26th.

The current hospital system has been built around the treatment of acute illness: emergencies, injuries, infections, etc. Chronic diseases are changing healthcare, and we are now entering a future in which care delivery is becoming decentralized, where communication between health professionals and patients is being facilitated by technology, leading to many potential advancements in prevention, treatment of chronic illness, and much more.

In his talk, Hexoskin's CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier discusses the specific tools enabling these advancements, what challenges exist in using health data for AI, and how healthcare professionals can leverage these new technologies to improve the quality of life for chronically ill patients.

Hexoskin at the AI in Healthcare Summit - San Francisco June 26-27, 2017

The Hexoskin software research platform is designed to generate continuous health data for the development of Artificial Intelligence (machine learning) algorithms for chronic diseases management. Hexoskin also offers AI and data science services to healthcare and pharma companies.

Hexoskin is the world leader in smart clothing and body sensing technologies. The company has announced last year it will equip the International Space Station (ISS) with a bio-monitoring system for astronauts in collaboration with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

The Montreal Heart Institute is currently completing a clinical trial with Hexoskin biometric shirts with angina patients undergoing therapy. One of the goals of the study is to develop a new vitality index using Hexoskin biometric shirts to assess angina and to monitor the rehabilitation of cardiac patients.

About Hexoskin

Hexoskin is the world leader in smart clothing for health monitoring. Hexoskin smart shirts are used by space and defense agencies, sports scientists, and thousands of health professionals and health researchers all over the world. The Hexoskin connected platform provides a new, convenient way to understand human health in real-life environments. For more information, write us at contact@hexoskin.com, and visit www.hexoskin.com and @Hexoskin on Twitter.

 

CAUTION - Hexoskin products and services are not intended, and should not be used to investigate, diagnose, monitor, treat or prevent disease or other medical conditions nor to provide information for medical or diagnostic purposes.

Hexoskin Lands $2.4M Space Medicine Contract

Montreal, Canada – October 21, 2016  The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is awarding a new contract to Carré Technologies (Hexoskin) to continue advancing technology on Astroskin, an innovative bio-monitoring system for use aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The announcement will be made today at the company's headquarters in Montreal by the honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport of Canada and first Canadian in space, and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

 

Consisting of a “smart shirt” and remote health monitoring software, Astroskin will collect valuable scientific data on astronauts’ vital signs, sleep quality and activity levels during their missions. CSA Astronaut David Saint-Jacques will test Astroskin during his six-month mission aboard the ISS in 2018-2019.

You can watch the press conference live on Facebook:

English : https://www.facebook.com/canadianspaceagency

Français : https://www.facebook.com/agencespatialecanadienne

Quotes

“Astroskin is a perfect example of how our government works with small, innovative, Canadian businesses on space technologies that lead to commercial versions for use by Canadians.”

The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

“Astroskin may have many applications on Earth, such as medical monitoring of those confined to their homes by illness, people living in remote areas with limited medical access, and those working in hazardous environments. It is another in a long list of space technologies brought down to Earth for all of us.”

The Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport 

“Our team is proud of the role we are playing to support human space travel. One day, thousands of space travelers bound for Mars will need simple reliable medical systems to ensure their health. Deploying our wearable sensors and software to the ISS is significant as this represents the ultimate remote patient monitoring scenario. The findings from tracking the health of astronauts will be used to make our healthcare system more accessible and support new home care and telemedicine services.”

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, CEO and co-founder, Carré Technologies (Hexoskin)

About Hexoskin
Hexoskin is the world leader in smart clothing for health monitoring. Hexoskin smart shirts are used by space and defense agencies, sports scientists, and thousands of health professionals and health researchers all over the world. The Hexoskin connected platform provides a new, convenient way to understand human health in real-life environments. For more information, visit www.hexoskin.com and @Hexoskin on Twitter.

Press Kit

Backgrounder - Web page - Infographic - B-roll

Cold weather will never be a good excuse anymore

 

You asked for it

Over the past few months we've had lots of happy users ask us to add sleeves, a collar, and why not, make the shirt warmer.

(drum roll, please)

We're pleased to announce that we were able to do all 3, giving birth to World's first cold weather smart shirt: the Hexoskin Arctic! And, since we're never afraid of taking on life-threatening challenges, we've even thrown in a couple of thumb holes for your comfort.

 

So, what's new in this shirt?

Apart from the obvious sleeves and collar, we've used a new textile, once again from Italy, that offers comfort similar to Merino wool. The fabric itself is based on research on polar bears' fur and how they trap heat between their skin and their fur. The textile we use does the same, while allowing natural evaporation of perspiration: absorbing very little water, the fabric dries rapidly, while keeping the body temperature constant. This reduces energy consumption to a minimum and improves athletic performance. As said above we've also added thumb holes and a zipper to the pocket, and of course the shirt is still machine-washable and very resistant to pilling and abrasion. You'll love it!

 

Limited edition, order now!

We're only going to produce a few hundred pieces of this limited edition cold weather smart shirt, so don't waste any time, order yours today! We're including a complimentary Hexoskin running hat in the first 20 orders.


order the hexoskin arctic shirt now


Hexoskin Wins "Most Innovative Consumer Health" Product Award at INTERFACE - Future of Health

This September's INTERFACE summit's theme was "The Future of Health", and Hexoskin was lucky enough to be invited to the event. It was a great opportunity for us to share ideas with our friends from Pebble and Ayogo on a panel about health and technology. The event lasted two days of intense discussions about how to improve public health, preventive health, personalized health, changing behaviours, big data for healthcare, sports medicine, genetic testing and more.

The hundreds of attendees liked our vision for the Future of Health, and Hexoskin won the "Most Innovative Consumer Health" product award!

 

 

Finally, we love when Vancouver greets us with great weather and probably one of the nicest landscapes in North America. This is the view we had from the Vancouver Conference Center. We'll be back for sure!