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Wearable Electronics for Effective Lung Monitoring

Project description

DEENESFRITPL

Low-cost sensors tune in to respiratory system

Lung diseases are among the main causes of death in the EU. Existing methods in chest disease analysis are expensive, uncomfortable, invasive or use ionising radiation. The EU-funded WELMO consortium develops low-cost and low-energy sensors that will be integrated in a comfortable and safe vest allowing remote monitoring of the lungs through the collection of respiration-linked chest sounds and Electrical Impedance Tomography signals. WELMO's proposition offers continuous monitoring and functional imaging, unravelling information at regional lung level and improving patient assessment. Patient safety is also enhanced since the employed techniques are non-invasive and don’t rely on ionising radiation. WELMO as a wearable solution improves patients' quality of life by contributing to the transition from hospital to home care.

Objective

Lung related diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pneumonia and asthma are considered the main causes of death in the EU. The current management of such diseases only allows a momentary patient assessment at the time point of out-clinic visit or hospitalization. Short-term trends in disease development, either deterioration or improvement, are not accessible. Continuous and real-time monitoring, especially in remote settings (e.g. patients’ homes) is not available. Additionally the devices used for monitoring the patients are massive, expensive, uncomfortable and difficult to operate, thus requiring specialized personnel. Several of them also rely on patients´ cooperation and compliance to guarantee proper examination results. The incorporation of novel electronics in garments presents great potential for addressing these challenges. More specifically, the adoption of Application-Specific-Integrated-Circuits (ASICs) neatly integrated in a comfortable and washable wearable is the key that makes the accurate and effective (in terms of both, cost and quality of life) continuous monitoring of lung diseases feasible.

The 42-month project WELMO aims at developing and validating a new generation of low-cost and low-power miniaturized sensors, integrated in a comfortable vest, enabling the effective and accurate monitoring of the lungs, through the simultaneous collection of sound and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) signals with the same sensors that can be combined, processed and linked with specific clinical outcomes by applying innovative algorithms, making the systematic, accurate and real-time evaluation of respiratory conditions possible. The impact, acceptance and usability of WELMO will be validated in a realistic setup through the execution of two 6-month pilot studies. In addition, a business study will be carried out, aiming to the mid-term exploitation of the proposed solution.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

H2020-ICT-2018-20

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Sub call

H2020-ICT-2018-2

Funding Scheme

RIA - Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

EXODUS ANONYMOS ETAIREIA PLIROFORIKIS
Net EU contribution
€ 640 000,00
Address
Estias 1 & mesogeion 73-75
11526 Athina
Greece

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Region
Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Other funding
€ 0,00

Participants (8)

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EC signature date 20 November 2018
Last update: 9 December 2022

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/825572

European Union, 2023