Chronolife’s Nexkin Biometric T-Shirt Enables Continuous Real-Time Health Monitoring

Chronolife was back at CES 2020 with its biometric smart T-Shirt Nexkin launched in November 2019, a consumer version of Chronolife’s medical solution that is expected to launch as a remote health monitoring product in 2020, with FDA and CE class 2a certifications. In 2021, the company will add to the lineup a patented predictive solution for Chronic Heart Failure with its proprietary HOTS algorithm for mobile phones.

Nexkin Biometric Smart T-Shirt, What Does It Do?

Nexkin is a machine-washable smart T-shirt packed with 10 sensors located monitoring 6 physiological parameters that are continuously recording a user’s electrocardiogram, abdominal and thoracic breathing, body temperature, physical activity, and pulmonary impedance. Data from the shirt is transmitted over Bluetooth to the user’s mobile phone, then transferred to secure servers and made available for review from a web interface.

The ECG sensor tracks heart rate, heart rate variability, arrhythmia, and tachycardia. The two sensors monitoring the respiratory activity track respiratory rate, breathing capacity, fluid retention in lungs, and respiratory distress. Pulmonary impedance monitoring enables edema characterization. The temperature sensor tracks body temperature, while the physical activity recorded includes the number of steps, posture indications (sitting, lying, standing), and intensity of physical activity. The system delivers 24 hours of battery life and takes a few hours to recharge.

The Nexkin non-medical product currently available to professionals would let a coach or an industrial fleet manager, for example, access the user’s wellness status from a digital dashboard.  The solution is customizable to fits the needs of a particular industry or service.
In 2019, Nexkin has received the European CE mark and the U.S FCC clearance to operate as a non-medical solution in the EU and US markets, respectively.

The commercial launch of Nexkin two months ago allows Chronolife’s clients to explore, test and deploy the technology for a broad range of services, in industrial, sports, military, wellness or medical settings.

Nexkin T-Shirt Enables Chronolife Health Monitoring Solution

The artificial intelligence start-up based in Paris, France, expects Nexkin to be deployed by healthcare organizations and professionals to continuously monitor users’ physiological markers, detect abnormalities, and to enhance intervention efficiency. For insurance providers incorporating Nexkin into outpatient preventative and support services for elderly users, Chronolife aims at increasing patients’ independence and reduce treatment costs. Pharmaceutical companies could use Nexkin to enhance the accuracy and utility of clinical trials and therapeutic efficacy programs.

Chronolife’s cutting-edge technology opens the door for a vast array of new applications in various fields such as aging-in-place, senior care, occupational health and safety, sports rehabilitation, military training, and performance management.

Chronolife Predictive Solution, How Does It Work?

Working with the Nexkin smart shirt, Chronolife’s patented neuromorphic HOTS algorithm embedded in the companion mobile application is at the center of the predictive solution for Heart Failure patients. HOTS stands for Hierarchy Of event-based Time-Surfaces and is the key differentiator of Chronolife’s technology, because it is event-based and not time-based, according to analyst firm Frost and Sullivan.

HOTS collects, analyzes and predicts the patient’s health status in real-time. The patient is informed in advance via alert messages on the smartphone in case a deterioration is detected, allowing for treatment adjustment and to avoid costly hospitalizations.

"THE PATENTED NEUROMORPHIC HOTS ALGORITHM IS THE KEY DIFFERENTIATOR OF CHRONOLIFE’S TECHNOLOGY"

During our meeting at CES 2020, Amber Nawaz, Chronololife’s Vice President of Business Development & Marketing, explained that the HOTS algorithm combines and analyzes the sensed biometric data with multiple data streams (data fusion) to define clinical events directly on the smartphone.

Although the system sends all the data collected by the bio-sensing shirt to secure servers for remote review, only the significant clinical events, detected when a signal goes above or below a threshold, trigger on-device calculation and send alerts to the patient.
Since a limited data stream in the form of clinical events requires real-time processing, Chronolife’s complex algorithm does not need big data computing on servers and can be executed on a smartphone, according to Amber Nawaz.

Chronolife Predictive Solution, What’s Next?

With its AI-powered monitoring and predictive solutions, Chronolife aims at providing better medical care to an aging population living with a higher number of chronic illnesses.  According to the company, 300 million people in the U.S. and Europe live with at least one chronic disease, and the number is increasing. There are not enough healthcare professionals and facilities to tackle the issue appropriately.

The first predictive solution to go to market by 2021 will be for Chronic Heart Failure, however, Nexkin smart shirt combined with HOTS algorithm can address other diseases.

Chronolife’s technology for patients with chronic conditions lets them stay at home longer by predicting the deterioration of their health, allowing healthcare professionals to adjust their therapy and avoid hospital readmissions.

We can see on the website that the company is already working on sleep apnea, epilepsy, and sudden infant death.

More FrenchTech innovations at CES 2020 on Ubergizmo here.

Eliane Fiolet
Categories: Cellphones, Medical
Tags: CES, CES 2020, digital health, edge computing, Editorspick, FrenchTech, LaFrenchtech, Social Hit, Wearable Tech