Bloomer Tech, a startup company from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has developed a “smart bra” to monitor women’s cardiovascular health.
The “smart bra” has washable circuits and sensors sewn into the bra’s lining, monitoring electrocardiogram signals from the heart. The sensor sends real-time data such as heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and body position to a smartphone.
(Credit: Bloomer Tech)
“We are at the infancy of understanding female cardiac health,” said co-founder Alicia Chong. “It may be the same organ, but symptoms and outcomes have significantly demonstrated to be very different [between genders] …It is also a preventable disease, but we encountered the issue of women with [cardiovascular disease], who are often underdiagnosed and undertreated because the information currently available on heart diseases have [has] large amount of data gaps.”
According to Silicon Angle, monitoring this information will help detect and treat cardiovascular disease, as heart disease is the No.1 cause of death in the United States. With permission, doctors can also access this data for female patients using a mobile platform. The app also can send push notifications to patients to increase their physical daily activity.
