A collaboration led by has partnered start-up medical device company Studio 1 Labs with 91ÑÇɫ’s School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, to test and analyze an intelligent bed sheet that can monitor health and vital signs.
In the summer of 2016, Innovation 91ÑÇɫ’s industry engagement manager, Cheryl Giblon, introduced Laura Nicholson, director of 91ÑÇɫ’s Nursing Simulation Centre (NSC), to Olivia Lin and Edward Shim, founders of Studio 1 Labs to work together to determine proof of concept for the health device.
Members of the intelligent bedsheets project team in the Nursing Simulation Centre located in the Health, Nursing and Environmental Studies Building on 91ÑÇɫ’s Keele Campus
The intelligent bed sheet is developed by Studio 1 Labs and aims to monitor the health of patients at home, in hospital or in long-term care. It uses unique fabric sensors which are embedded into the bed sheet and detect respiratory patterns that are wirelessly transmitted to a computer terminal.
In December 2016, phase one of a three-phase project began in the Nursing Simulation Centre, supported by 91ÑÇÉ« Professors Eva Peisachovich and Celina Da Silva, and School of Nursing Simulation Manager Raya Gal.
Data collection was completed in January 2018 as the second phase of the project, with participants sleeping overnight in the NSC. The NSC is used to train 91ÑÇɫ’s nursing students, and provided a unique opportunity for the start-up to collect data in a simulated hospital setting.
Studio 1 Labs’ goal is to commercialize the intelligent bed sheet, which has the capability to transform any bed into a patient vital signs monitoring system.
The collaboration and support provided by Innovation 91ÑÇÉ« and the School of Nursing has been an integral part of helping Studio 1 Labs achieve this goal, said Nicholson, the principal investigator on the project.
The project is funding by an Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) grant of $25,000.
Courtesy of YFile.