News

Hexoskin & Astroskin Supporting State-Of-The-Art Human Performance Research

Addressing Unexplored Frontiers in Human Performance

Since the late 19th century, modern research on human performance has led to the study of cognitive abilities, physiological, and psychological factors that influence human capabilities. 

Although significant pioneering efforts have been made in the 20th century and in recent decades, there are still several unexplored research areas that could potentially enhance the resilience and health of military personnel and warfighters. Key areas include understanding the neuroscience of performance, human-technology interaction, performance in extreme environments, individual variability, collaborative performance, and ethical approaches to performance enhancement. Additionally, long-term skill development, cross-disciplinary research, non-traditional performance metrics, and performance in virtual environments hold untapped potential for transformative discoveries.

Top institutions such as the U.S. Navy Naval Research Center (USA), the Canadian Armed Forces, and the French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA) (France), are at the forefront of state-of-the-art studies pertaining to human performance, readiness, stress, fatigue, and fitness. Leveraging the Hexoskin and Astroskin smart garments with embedded health sensors and an end-to-end platform providing continuous health status and high-resolution data, these organizations are paving the way for deeper understanding and advancements in the fields of human physiology and performance optimization. From assessing the endurance, physical fitness and resilience of warfighters to unraveling the mysteries of physiological responses, their efforts promise to reshape our comprehension of human potential, enhancing readiness, and fostering safer and more effective operational environments.

Enhancing Warfighters' Health & Performance

One of the organizations leading the charge includes the team at the U.S. Naval Health Research Center located in San Diego that aims to improve the health, well-being, and performance of the United States military personnel and veterans. Their research revolves around monitoring and enhancing Warfighter performance and operational readiness through the integration of physical and cognitive monitoring.

The team at Naval Health Research Center uses cutting-edge wearable biometric sensors, including Hexoskin and Astroskin devices, to measure vital signs such as ECG, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and breathing rate in real-time and other important stress, fatigue, cognitive, and performance markers with heart rate variability (HRV). In their facilities that include simulation labs, driving simulators, and virtual reality (VR) environments, they are validating the accuracy and effectiveness of Hexoskin and Astroskin by comparing them with gold standard measurements. Their goal is to integrate solutions like Hexoskin & Astroskin with custom virtual reality programs and other research tools for comprehensive data analysis. The data collected will help them perform stress levels assessments, fatigue, and overall performance, leading to personalized training plans and strategies for stress and fatigue management for deployment in real-world scenarios.

Source: Astroskin Webinar: Amy Silder, PhD. Biomonitoring in Warfighter Performance

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) studied the performance and reliability of the Hexoskin garment. A Canadian Forces Health Services Group reserve unit used the Hexoskin garment during a two-day military field exercise that included reconnaissance, reacting to enemy fire, and providing tactical field care to casualties.

 

The final exercise was conducted over two nights and three days in moderate weather conditions in British Columbia, Canada.

 

Hexoskin was found to be comfortable during various environmental and weather conditions while continuously collecting cardiac, respiratory, activity, and sleep data.

 

Another innovative project with Astroskin is led by the Agence Innovation Defense under the Ministère des Armées in France. The SPEEN project aims to monitor pilots during flights, measuring their real-time health parameters including blood oxygen levels with the Astroskin SpO2 pulse oximeter. The project aims to alert pilots of unnoticed situations and predict critical conditions using artificial intelligence. Conceived by Ship-of-the-line lieutenant Christophe and supported by Frigate Captain Gautier, both test pilots at the Centre d'expérimentations pratiques et de réception de l'aéronautique navale (CEPA). The research involving Astroskin has been conducted in partnership with the Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées (IRBA), the Département de Médecine Aéronautique Opérationnelle (DMAO), Hexoskin and Knopé, Hexoskin's Distributor in France. 

Source: Agence Innovation Défense

Thanks to their efforts and for enhancing flight safety by understanding and predicting unexplained physiological events during flight through individual data and AI, the team received the Prix de l'audace award given by the Ministère des Armées in 2022.

Reshaping Resiliency & Health Outcomes Beyond the Laboratory & Battlefield

By tracing new paths in human performance research and innovative technology applications, these efforts can support not only the resilience and well-being of active military personnel and warfighters but also provide better support and care to veterans, and beyond.

These groundbreaking studies and projects can also extend to the lives of veterans who transition to civilian life. As we refine our understanding of stress, fatigue, and resilience, the impact of the work accomplished can influence how we approach healthcare and well-being services to improve the quality of life of active personnel and our retired service members.

As we navigate unexplored frontiers, the journey extends beyond the laboratory and battlefield, shaping a future where the dedication of our armed forces is met with a reciprocal commitment to their lifelong health and success.

Contact Hexoskin today to discuss how the Hexoskin & Astroskin end-to-end platform can support your projects.

Hexoskin at Biosensors for Medical Wearables 2023 in Boston: Non-adhesive, flexible wearable sensors for pulmonary medical applications

Hexoskin's co-founder and CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier has been invited this year again to talk about wearable vital signs monitoring and digital biomarker development at the Biosensors for Medical Wearables Conference in Boston, this October 23rd.

Vital signs sensors traditionally used for cardiac and respiratory monitoring involve adhesives or tape to keep 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 digital biomarker development: 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.

Moreover, Hexoskin biometric shirts' respiratory sensors allow continuous pulmonary measurements previously hard or impossible to collect in real-world situations, outside laboratory environments. These sensors open a new era of research on diseases that have an impact on the pulmonary function.

In his talk, Fournier will describe medical applications of smart textile sensors for patients with respiratory diseases, as well as opportunities in research in cardiology, 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

Now 200+ Scientific Publications with Hexoskin!

Research organizations publish more than ever with Hexoskin data! Hexoskin Scientific Community has surpassed a significant milestone by publishing over 200 scientific publications.

Hexoskin is the most popular smart clothing platform for health monitoring in the world, and its users have published more papers with Hexoskin and Astroskin devices than with all the competition combined.

The long list of papers covers cardiovascular health, respiratory monitoring, stress, sleep, space medicine, and many more subjects.

We've always believed transparency and collaboration are fundamental values necessary to the progress of science. This is why from the beginning we provided to our users tools to conduct investigations, collect data from research participants, and an open API to access every data point collected and automate data processing tasks. From these tools has emerged a dynamic research community pushing our understanding of human physiology.

Since 2012, Hexoskin has supported thousands of clients with end-to-end and flexible solutions to fit all their needs and bring new capabilities for leading research and projects. Hexoskin now reaches more than 50 countries and is used by top universities, research institutes, hospitals, government, defense, police, and first responders organizations in addition to companies in many industries.

Our Hexoskin + Research program aims to support student and academic researchers every step of the way. Hexoskin also supports professionals and innovative companies with our program Hexoskin + Professionals.

Contact our team to discuss how Hexoskin can support you with tailored solutions to help you find answers to your next big questions. 

Universities and Research Labs Harnessing Hexoskin and Astroskin for Their Cutting-Edge Projects

In the rapidly evolving landscape of health research, the integration of cutting-edge technologies has become paramount for advancing scientific exploration and discovery. The pursuit of innovative methodologies and tools to enhance the precision and scope of health research is a shared concern for academic institutions and researchers worldwide.

Each new research or discovery presents a set of constraints and challenges that researchers and students must go through to secure funding, navigate Institutional Review Boards and Ethics committees and recruit and retain participants, while balancing schedules and pressure to publish. Additionally, obtaining access to specialized equipment and generating high-quality data, sometimes across multiple facilities, can incur significant costs and time commitments. The need for accessible solutions that support researchers and students in their data collection, analysis and interpretation has emerged as a pivotal requirement for universities aspiring to position their institution as top research and innovation hubs on the national and global stage.

This is why leading research institutions including McGill University, Alma College, Salzburg University, TELUQ, The University of Arizona, and the University of Alberta, to name a few, have embraced cutting-edge technologies like Hexoskin and Astroskin as integral components of their laboratory equipment & research methodologies to conduct their projects thanks to their relative lower costs for collecting multiparameters high-resolution data and advanced study management and analytics tools.

An illustrative example of an academic institution's commitment to supporting its research community is the University of Arizona's SensorLab. Funded by the University of Arizona Strategic Plan, SensorLab is a Health Sciences initiative bringing students, faculty, industry and community partners together to pioneer human-centered sensor systems. The laboratory connects researchers across disciplines, within health sciences and beyond, to develop a range of health-oriented technologies and digital solutions, including AI, VR, and mobile apps. SensorLab is outfitted with gold-standard and state-of-the-art sensor systems like Hexoskin, environmental monitoring, 360 video and audio recording, XR, coupled with analytical tools and multimodal feedback capabilities to push forward the next generation of sensor-based investigation and discovery. 

For students, SensorLab provides two key services: lending equipment and sensors for shared use, as well as dedicated research spaces configured for sensor-based projects. Students can engage at varying levels, from borrowing hardware to actively contributing to the design and development of sensor-driven research.

Over the years, Hexoskin has made it easier for research clients and developers to leverage fully the Hexoskin and Astroskin platform and collaborate on premises and remotely. Research groups such as the team behind the WE SENSE study at McGill University can answer research questions and hypothesis by leveraging the additional sensors provided with Astroskin or Hexoskin to determine the health parameters and metrics that are most relevant to answer their research questions and build their models. Given that Hexoskin and Astroskin offer processed and raw data in multiple formats suitable for advanced analysis, researchers are leveraging the online dashboard and API to extract the data to work on their models using machine learning and artificial intelligence methods.

Other research groups like at Salzburg University are going further in their experimentations by leveraging the SDK tools available to developers for Hexoskin and Astroskin to access the raw data in real time enabling them to build ground breaking apps while also leveraging the data collected in their research to publish scientific papers.

With a presence in over 50 countries and growing, Hexoskin & Astroskin have been adopted and shared across organizations and labs to conduct and deliver projects.

Contact Hexoskin today to discuss how the Hexoskin & Astroskin end-to-end platform can support your projects.

Hexoskin Attending the Ontario Exercise Physiology 2022 Conference

The Hexoskin Team is attending the Ontario Exercise Physiology 2022 conference hosted by the University of Waterloo.

The Ontario Exercise Physiology conference is a student-focused meeting held annually. The conference attracts faculty and students from across Ontario and beyond, providing an opportunity for trainees to present their research, network with students and faculty, and learn about the exciting research being conducted across Ontario.

Participants are invited to visit the Hexoskin boot to exchange about their research and see the Hexoskin & Astroskin platforms in action with Real-Time Metrics. 

Hexoskin is very proud to sponsor the event. Over the years several researchers and students from University of Waterloo have leveraged the Hexoskin products and solutions for their research. Here's a list of the published results from the University of Waterloo.

References & Publications from the University of Waterloo

Tracking Astronaut Physical Activity and Cardiorespiratory Responses with the Bio-Monitor Sensor Shirt
Mastrandrea, C. et al. The FASEB Journal, Volume 35, Issue S1, Special Issue: Experimental Biology 2021 Meeting Abstract, 2021.

Temporal Prediction of Oxygen Uptake Dynamics from Wearable Sensors During Low-, Moderate-, and Heavy-intensity Exercise
Amelard, R. et al. Nature Partner Journals (NPJ) Digital Medicine, 4.1: 1-8, 2021.

Remote Health Monitoring System for Bedbound Patients
Alizadeh, M. et al. IEEE 20th International Conference on Bioinformatics and Bioengineering (BIBE), IEEE, 2020.

Wearable Sensor Technology and Machine Learning for Prediction of Oxygen Uptake and Extraction of Kinetics During Moderate and Heavy Intensity Exercise
Hedge, E.T. Master's Thesis of the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo, 2020.

Remote Monitoring of Human Vital Signs using mm-Wave FMCW Radar
Alizadeh, M. et al. IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 54958-54968, 2019.

Remote Vital Signs Monitoring using a mm-wave FMCW Radar
Alizadeh, M. Master’s thesis of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, 2019.

Extracting Aerobic System Dynamics During Unsupervised Activities of Daily Living Using Wearable Sensor Machine Learning Models
Beltrame, T. et al. Journal of Applied Physiology, 124(2), p. 473-481, 2018.

Aerobic System Analysis Based on Oxygen Uptake and Hip Acceleration During Random Over-Ground Walking Activities
Beltrame, T. et al. American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 312(1), p. R93–R100, 2017.

Prediction of Oxygen Uptake and Its Dynamics by Wearable Sensors During Activities of Daily Living
Beltrame, T. et al. Doctoral thesis of the Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, 2016.

Prediction of Oxygen Uptake Dynamics by Machine Learning Analysis of Wearable Sensors during Activities of Daily Living
Beltrame, T. et al. Scientific Reports. 7, p. 45738, 2017.

Validation of the Hexoskin Wearable Vest During Lying, Sitting, Standing and Walking Activities
Villar, R. et al. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 40(10), p. 1019-24, 2015.

We look forward to seeing more results and projects being published in the coming years!

Many universities, research institutes, and companies are leveraging the Hexoskin and Astroskin platforms to conduct their research and projects and generate results.

Hexoskin has developed tailored programs for researchers and professionals to support them in the planning of their project. Contact our team today to start planning your next project and get a quote with perks and discounts from our Hexoskin+ programs for professionals, academic researchers, and students.

Now 100+ Publications with Hexoskin!

Today 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.

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! 

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

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

Hexoskin and Halo Health to solve key challenges of clinical trials.

Hexoskin and Halo Health are announcing today a collaboration to solve key challenges in running clinical trials. Combining Hexoskin and Halo Health's technology will offer greater operational efficiency for virtual clinical trials and home monitoring, and offer tools to increase patient engagement.

These new tools will reduce the cost of collecting vital signs data for clinical trials, and will allow patients to participate in medical research from the comfort of their home.

Hexoskin smart garments and its Connected Health Platform are compatible with Halo Health solutions. The two companies will mutually promote their offering to pharmaceutical sponsors to support clinical development.

Halo Health is enabling patient-centric trials to reduce patient and site burden. Its Smart Clinical Trials solution is a digital health platform that provides Remote Patient Monitoring, Patient Engagement, and Workflow Automation. The solution includes an integrated ecosystem of clinical grade sensors and wearables to enable hybrid & virtual trials for various therapeutic areas including cardiology, respiratory and endocrinology.

Pierre-Alexandre Fournier - Chief Executive Officer at Hexoskin: “Medicine's progress depends on being able to better observe patients' outcomes. Anything we can do to lower the cost of data helps accelerate clinical development. This is something that Pharma and Biotech companies need to innovate, but most importantly this is something that we need to do to improve treatments for patients and find new cures for diseases that affect millions of people and their families.” says Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, Chief Executive Officer at Hexoskin. “Combining Halo Health's software with Hexoskin sensors and algorithms reduces the cost of collecting data in clinical trials, with greater flexibility & patient centricity.”

Hexoskin is a pioneer and leader in non-invasive vital signs sensors and remote patient monitoring solutions. Hexoskin Smart Clothing for Men, Women, and Children are clinically validated and its Connected Health Platform is used for health research in cardiology, pulmonology, psychiatry, rare diseases and many other health conditions.

We’re attending #DPHARM2019 in #Boston, at HaloHealth's Kiosk on September 17 & 18, 2019! Visit Booth 30 to learn about our joint innovative solutions to solve the key challenges of Clinical-trials! 

Contact Hexoskin to learn more.

Advancing space medicine knowledge aboard the ISS. Another space mission for Astroskin / Bio-Monitor!

Earlier this month, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano conducted validation tests on-orbit and wore the Astroskin garment and headband connected to the data unit for his first 72-hour monitoring experience.

Luca Parmitano also conducted maintenance operations for the Astroskin / Bio-Monitor that was deployed on the ISS orbiting lab, last December by Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques.

Although the ISS is equipped with health and life sciences research tools, the existing instrumentation for continuous and simultaneous recording of several physiological parameters was lacking. To address this issue, the Canadian Space Agency's Bio-Monitor Commissioning activity uses the Astroskin / Bio-Monitor system; a complete vital signs monitoring platform coupled with a wearable garment capable of monitoring relevant physiological parameters in a non-invasive and non-interfering way during a normal day in space. 

The physiological parameters which can be monitored consist of blood pressure, peripheral blood oxygen saturation, 3-lead ECG, respiration, skin temperature, and activity, will help push further our understanding of Vascular aging and Human Physiology in space. 

Venturing into the environment of space, microgravity can have negative effects on the human body. When astronauts return to Earth, their carotid arteries, which carry blood to the head and neck, appear to have aged 20 to 30 years. Artery walls become stiffer and thicker in space, the same as when people grow older on Earth.

“You can take extremely healthy, fit astronauts and put them in an environment that restricts their ability to do daily exercise, and they run the risk of developing insulin resistance that on Earth could lead to Type II diabetes,” said principal investigator Richard L. Hughson of Schlegel-University of Waterloo in Ontario

Now operational the Astroskin Bio-Monitor system is available for the next five years to conduct Health research in Space for all participating countries to the International Space Station.

Sometimes you wear the experiment: the Bio-Monitor smart shirt system measures vital signs like temperature, heart rate, respiration and movement, and transmits the data to a tablet application. #MissionBeyond @csa_asc pic.twitter.com/2h6lmRUyHH

— Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) 19 août 2019

Source:
NASA. 2019. ISS Daily Summary Report - 8/14/2019
NASA. 2019. ISS Daily Summary Report - 8/13/2019

About Hexoskin
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.

Hexoskin to build world’s largest database of vital signs for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients with ICANCME Research Network

Montreal, Canada, August 22, 2019  - The CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) organized a press conference at CHU Sainte-Justine, Mother and Child University Hospital Center today to announce the funding of a five-year project to collect biological and vital signs data from patients suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), to improve medical knowledge of the disease. Canadian Minister of Health, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, was at the event to make the announcement with Dr. Alain Moreau, Scientific Director of the Viscogliosi Laboratory in Molecular Genetics of Musculoskeletal Diseases.

In Canada, over half a million Canadians suffer from ME. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), in the United States, 836,000 to 2.5 million Americans suffer from ME, but most of them have not been diagnosed. There is currently no biological diagnostic test for ME. The disease is diagnosed based on symptoms and by ruling out other conditions that could be causing the symptoms. The CHIR funded project will build the largest long-term cardiopulmonary and activity database in the world for patients with ME.

Hexoskin, a Montreal-based leader in smart clothing, health software, and AI services will provide its health monitoring solutions to support building the database. Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, CEO of Hexoskin, is pleased by today’s announcement: ‘’We believe this project will help us understand how to better take care of patients presenting symptoms of ME. Recent data shows that the prevalence of this disease is higher than previously estimated and has an enormous impact on Canadians living with ME and our society. Data collected in this project will impact millions of lives’’.

Dr. Alain Moreau will be the Principal Investigator with the Interdisciplinary Canadian Collaborative Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - ICANCME - Research Network: “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is possibly the last medical enigma of the 21st century. Our scientific partnership with Hexoskin will be instrumental to address the complexity of ME given its clinical heterogeneity and phenotypic variability overtime. The Hexoskin wearable technologies will allow researchers and clinicians to investigate people severely affected by ME (housebound or bedridden), which is rarely done due to their limited capacity to participate in clinical studies.”

Learn more on Health Research with Hexoskin.
To order, visit the Hexoskin Online Store or contact sales@hexoskin.com.

About Hexoskin:
Founded in 2006 in Montreal, Hexoskin is the leader in non-invasive sensors, smart clothing, software, data science & AI services. Hexoskin launched in 2013 the first washable smart shirts that capture cardiac, respiratory, and activity body metrics. Hexoskin is an end-to-end system to monitor the user’s general health, vital signs, sleep, and activity, using built-in sensors embedded in Smart Garments made in Canada. The system can be used for a wide range of research domains including cardiology, respiratory, behavioural and physiological psychology, biofeedback, sleep patterns, circadian rhythms, effects of aging on physical performance, human energy expenditure, and physical conditioning.

The Hexoskin smart clothing and solutions were validated in over 70 scientific publications in the fields of cardiology, respiratory, behavioural and physiological psychology, sleep patterns, circadian rhythms, effects of aging on physical performance, and AI-Machine Learning. The company provides custom solutions, R&D project management, and services to international clients in defence, aerospace, security, police and first responders, pharmaceuticals, academics, and healthcare.

Hexoskin is also known for collaborating with the Canadian Space Agency to provide its advanced health technologies Astroskin (Bio-Monitor) to monitor the vital signs of the Canadian Astronaut David Saint-Jacques and future astronauts visiting in the International Space Station for the next five years. The company launched in 2018 the Astroskin platform for research and public/private projects on Earth.