Indiana Patent of the Month – July 2023
Predictive Wear is a medical technology company focused on accelerating the world’s transition to predictive and preventative medical monitoring. Their approach? Smart garments. Their logic is that smart watches and other wearable devices typically don’t have enough access to the body to properly monitor health. With garments, there can be more coverage and improved data of the body’s entire mechanical and physiological status.
In line with this mission, the company has recently been granted a patent for their smart Compression Legging System. This garment combines compression with a wearable sensor network and a mobile application to detect and monitor recurrent diseases such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), congestive heart failure (CHF), and lymphedema, among others.
The wearable sensor network is made of multiple electrodes strategically placed within the compression garment. These electrodes are designed to collect ipsilateral bio-impedance measurements from different locations of each leg. By alternately and ipsilaterally activating the electrodes, the system enables data collection and analysis, providing valuable insights into the condition of the user’s legs.
The system’s central hardware unit, connected to the electrodes, incorporates essential components such as an accelerometer-gyroscope module and a bio-impedance module. These modules work together to collect additional data sets, including acceleration, gyroscopic data, and bio-impedance measurements, which are vital for accurate disease detection and monitoring. The central hardware unit also acts as a power source, temporarily storing the collected data before transmitting it to the mobile application.
Predictive Wear’s mobile app receives the collected data and integrates it with third-party data sets for analysis and comparison. The app also acts as a user interface, displaying health data to the user.
Currently in beta testing, the company markets their leggings as capable of accurate hydration monitoring and real-time analysis of inertial movement, player load and more. By increasing the surface area accessible to biomedical sensors, smart garments are able to utilize redundant physiological monitoring systems to ensure sensor accuracy. From monitoring recurrent DVT and CHF to aiding in post-operative care and lymphedema management, this innovative system has the potential to revolutionize disease detection, prevention, and management.
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