Smart clothing is finding its niche in health monitoring.
Chronolife, an artificial intelligence firm in the field of digital health, announced the commercial launch of Nexkin, a washable, wearable t-shirt that can send data on six distinct biological parameters to a user’s smartphone app.
Nexkin provides a solution to health care professionals that need an unobtrusive method of tracking the physiology of their patients without using traditional medical monitoring equipment, aiding in the prevention of medical ailments and reducing risks of complications via remote monitoring, Chronolife said.
Recently, Nexkin received the CE (Conformité Européenne) designation in the EU, giving Chronolife the go-ahead to sell in the region after a review of the products’ safety and performance. The commercial launch also coincides with the closing of a round of funding that was led by three investors: Adrea, Celeste Management and iBionext, a French startup studio.
“AI and wearable technologies are dramatically changing the healthcare and research sectors, and Chronolife is at the very forefront of that movement,” iBionext executive chairman Bernard Gilly said. “This commercial launch is just the beginning: the potential applications for the Nexkin T-shirt are almost endless.”
Nexkin wearables work thanks to 10 biometric scanners placed within the T-shirt, each monitoring a given vital including body temperature, physical activity, pulmonary impedance and abdominal and thoracic breathing. The data gathered from these sensors is then transferred via Bluetooth to a connected smartphone running Chronolife’s HOTS (Hierarchy Of event-based Time Surfaces) algorithm. This information can then be downloaded and examined by health professionals.
Users can wear Nexkin “around the clock” thanks to its comfortable construction and 24-hour battery life, Chronolife said.
“The Nexkin T-shirt makes accurate, unobtrusive continuous health monitoring both affordable and convenient across a wide range of industries and functionalities, from pharmaceutical testing to senior care,” Laurent Vandebrouck, CEO of Chronolife, said. “By combining wearable electronics with advanced AI-powered analytics, we’re delivering biometric monitoring capabilities that will revolutionize the way researchers and healthcare professionals will eventually interact with patients.”
Chronolife expects Nexkin T-shirts will receive medical certification in Europe in 2020 and anticipates FDA approval by the end of next year.