The LifeShirt system for wireless patient monitoring in the operating room

We examined the functionality and reliability of a wearable physiological monitoring system (LifeShirt) during normal daily activities and in a hospital operating room (OR) environment. The garment collects physiological data such as oxygen saturation, and stores them in a recorder from which it can be read afterwards. Ten normal subjects wore the shirt continuously for 8 h per day. Feedback from the testers was quite positive, although the collected data varied in quality. Ten hospital patients also wore the shirt during endoscopy. The data collected during the hospital stay were qualitatively adequate. Measuring respiratory function caused the biggest problems. The study showed that intelligent garment technology could be used in an OR environment for patient monitoring, albeit not in realtime. It may also be useful in home follow-up.