T-Shirt Monitor helps patients recover at home after urological surgery

T-Shirt Monitor helps patients recover at home after urological surgery

A T-shirt that monitors a patient's vitals after cancer urologic surgery could help people return from the hospital sooner to recover at home. The device, worn under clothing for three hour windows every day for three weeks, allowed patients to feel safer and more reassured than a control group in a 70-person pilot study.

The results will be presented this weekend at the European Congress of Urology (EAU) in Madrid.

Telemedicine in medical practice allows patients and clinicians to maintain contact remotely so that care, interventions, and monitoring can continue from the comfort of a patient's own home. Antonio L Pastore, associate professor of urology, Sapienza University of Rome, and colleagues wanted to see if their patients could be discharged after robotic-assisted urological surgery for cancer under the current standard.

The team worked with a company specializing in telemonitoring, webarable solutions and designed a light t-shirt with sensors that monitor ECG, respiratory and heart rate, body temperature and more. The wearable technology sends data to an app and web-based software.

In a control group, patients were discharged as normal three to five days after surgery. In the "wearable" group, they were discharged 24 to 36 hours before two to four days after surgery wearing a T-shirt to monitor important parameters such as blood pressure, pulse rate, saturation and blood sugar. The wearable group was fully informed about how the device worked and was asked to wear it during the day between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 a.m.

The T-shirt we gave patients is different from smartwatches and other wearables. It can reveal more data, including electrolytes, which we need to continue monitoring after bladder surgery as they can reveal mineral imbalances that lead to serious complications. “

Antonio L Pastore, Associate Professor of Urology, Sapienza University, Rome

In the control group, eight patients (26%) accessed the hospital before their scheduled follow-up visit compared to two patients, only 6%, in the portable group. T-shirt monitoring also detected the onset of cardiac disease in five patients, enabling early diagnosis and treatment.

The average remote monitoring time was 13.5 days and the overall satisfaction rate for patients in this group was 90%. Only a few patients, 10%, had difficulty understanding the telemedicine instructions, 87% found it effective and encouraging.

Antonio Pastore says: "Our patients found the T-shirt easy to use and over 90% said they felt safe and comfortable to recover at home during the repeat. In Italy, the standard discharge time after this type of robotic-assisted urological surgery can be at least 72 hours, and it means that patients are able to do so.

Professor Maarten Albersen, Urologist at UZ Leuven, Belgium, and Eau Scientific Congress Office Chair, said: "This sensory T-shirt appears to be a promising remote monitoring technology to help patients recover well at home after robotic-assisted urological surgery to avoid unnecessary rehospitalizations."

“Given the small size and preliminary nature of the study, clinical practice of this type of wearable will see the need for more data to support earlier hospital discharge and its true impact on outcomes and cost-effectiveness.”

A study on the cost-effectiveness of the technology is currently underway by researchers.

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