It knows when you are slouching. It takes your blood pressure. It can run an electrocardiogram on demand and measure blood-oxygen levels at the touch of a fingertip. The LifeShirt system monitors 40 health indicators, which in turn are downloaded through a PDA module, uploaded to www.lifeshirt.com, and passed on to a doctor. Invented by Marvin Sackner, a professor of medicine at the University of Miami, the shirt will help monitor outpatients 24/7, delivering, he says, "a continuous movie of medical data as opposed to a snapshot." It will also let patients report symptoms such as dizziness or pain and schedule appointments online.
The first LifeShirts - running $100 apiece, plus the PDA cost and $30 a day for monitoring - will be introduced this fall. Sackner is already talking about developing wireless wearables to be used in clinical drug trials.
ELECTRIC WORD
Lathe Shift
Test of Time
Every Breath You Take
Urban Flight
Garagepreneur
The Art of War
