'MagIC' ('Maglietta interattiva computerizzata') - the Italian acronym for 'computerised interactive t-shirt' - is an Italian project of wireless health monitoring t-shirts. The project is currently under a transition stage, between technological transfer and production. Its main phases and applications have been recently presented in the city of Bologna.

'MagIC' is the first wireless prototype of its kind in the frame of telemedicine applications. It has been developed by the Telemedicine and Wearable Sensors Laboratory of the Technological Pole and the Biomedical Research Department of the Milan-based Research Hospital Santa Maria Nascente (IRCCS S. Maria Nascente), Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation.

The testing phase was conducted over several years on about 200 subjects placed in various situations, from seniors with a heart condition in recovery stay in hospital to rehabilitation patients and, in the framework of a European project, to people recovering at home.

'MagIC' received the CE marking in June 2009. Worn by the patient, the health t-shirt provides valid support to health monitoring, especially that of health patients. Ing. Marco di Rienzo, the coordinator of the research activities carried out in the cardio respiratory Unit of the Telemedicine and Wearable Sensors Laboratory at the Technological Pole explained: "MagIC is a regular cotton t-shirt with small parts made of special fibres allowing to check the wearer's breath and heart activity 200 times per second. It is worn like a piece of underwear and does not require the placement of wires or adhesive electrodes on the body."

The functioning of the device is both convenient and ingenious: a small electronic module which is as big and heavy as a mobile phone is connected directly on the t-shirt. Via this tool it is possible to detect the subjects' physical activity or posture, memorise the data emitted by the t-shirt and convey the signals to a remote monitoring centre via bluetooth.

In order to test the prototype, on 9 September 2008 two researchers of the Don Gnocchi Foundation took part along with 30 other researchers in an Everest expedition. The so-called 'Highcare mission' aimed to finalise and assess the cardiovascular, neurological, metabolic and psychological effects of the lack of oxygen, or to be more precise, of hypoxia, at high altitudes. Prior to departure, the Telemedicine and Wearable Sensors Laboratory of the Technological Pole had provided the participants with 35 'MagIC' to be used for collecting cardio respiratory signals during their sleep and daily activities at high altitudes. The devices had to be modified to be suited to the specific weather and environmental conditions. The information collected on this occasion has been crucial for the subsequent development of the patent.

In practice the potential uses of 'MagIC' are various and of broad range. While initially the t-shirt was simply intended to be used for monitoring the vital parameters of the elderly and heart patients, its potential applications have been multiplying, notably in other contexts such as the assessment of the cardio vascular performances of healthy subjects during work or sportive activities and the monitoring of physiological parameters under extreme environmental conditions.

Of course the medical field remains the main application area of 'MagIC'. The latter can be used as a telemonitoring device and a home-based telerehabilitation tool for heart patients, as well as a means to support the adjustment of the pharmacological therapy and a tool for the extended monitoring of children with cardio respiratory diseases. Industrial medicine is another sector in which the t-shirt can be adopted for the assessment of cardio vascular stress under extreme work conditions and thus, for the prevention of accidents at work. 'MagIC' is furthermore foreseen to be used in biomedical research, to either quantify biological response during the testing of medicine or to perform experimental procedures.

 

Further information: 

• Original news article - Telemeditalia (in Italian)