Organizer:
Joerg Habetha,  Philips Research Laboratories, Aachen, Germany

Wednesday, August 30, 2006; 2.45 PM – 4.15 PM

Presenters:
Joerg Habetha  Philips Research Laboratories, Aachen, Germany, MyHeart - A new approach for remote monitoring and management of cardiovascular diseases.

Sergio Guillen ITACA - Technologies for Health and Well-Being (TSB), Valencia, Spain, Innovative concepts for prevention and disease management of cardiovascular diseases.

Sergio Cerutti, Anna Maria Bianchi, Department of Bioengineering, Polytechnic University, Milano, Italy, Analysis of sleep and stress profiles from biomedical signal processing in wearable devices.

Rita Paradiso, Smartex Laboratories, Prato, Italy; Danilo de Rossi Interdepartmental Research; Center "E. Piaggio", University of Pisa, Italy,  Advances in textile technologies for unobtrusive monitoring of vital parameters and movements.

Maria Teresa Arredondo Life Supporting Technologies, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Spain Wearable technologies for data processing and data analysis as well as solutions for subsequent user and professional interaction.

Abstract:
The session will give an overview of the work and results of the MyHeart project. MyHeart is a public research project funded by the European Commission in the 6th framework programme dealing with the prevention and early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. The project is a major research initiative by Philips and more than 30 other industrial and academic partners, which started at the end of 2003 and will last until September 2007. The idea behind MyHeart is to apply continuous or periodic monitoring of vital signs, in order to gain knowledge about a person’s health status. To achieve this, MyHeart integrates functional clothes with on-body sensors (textile and non-textile) and electronics into intelligent biomedical clothes. These are capable of acquiring, processing and evaluating physiological data. The results are sent via a wireless personal area network to a mobile phone or PDA and from there to a hospital or any other professional care provider. Depending on the diagnosis, recommendations are given to the user. Such an approach towards integrated disease management has the potential to change the national healthcare systems dramatically.  The different presentations by leading experts in their field will deal with the applications and associated concepts that have been defined in the project as well as the enabling technologies like textile sensors and electronics that are currently being researched and developed.