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Hexoskin & Astroskin Supporting State-Of-The-Art Human Performance Research
Addressing Unexplored Frontiers in Human Performance
Since the late 19th century, modern research on human performance has led to the study of cognitive abilities, physiological, and psychological factors that influence human capabilities.
Although significant pioneering efforts have been made in the 20th century and in recent decades, there are still several unexplored research areas that could potentially enhance the resilience and health of military personnel and warfighters. Key areas include understanding the neuroscience of performance, human-technology interaction, performance in extreme environments, individual variability, collaborative performance, and ethical approaches to performance enhancement. Additionally, long-term skill development, cross-disciplinary research, non-traditional performance metrics, and performance in virtual environments hold untapped potential for transformative discoveries.
Top institutions such as the U.S. Navy Naval Research Center (USA), the Canadian Armed Forces, and the French Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute (IRBA) (France), are at the forefront of state-of-the-art studies pertaining to human performance, readiness, stress, fatigue, and fitness. Leveraging the Hexoskin and Astroskin smart garments with embedded health sensors and an end-to-end platform providing continuous health status and high-resolution data, these organizations are paving the way for deeper understanding and advancements in the fields of human physiology and performance optimization. From assessing the endurance, physical fitness and resilience of warfighters to unraveling the mysteries of physiological responses, their efforts promise to reshape our comprehension of human potential, enhancing readiness, and fostering safer and more effective operational environments.
Enhancing Warfighters' Health & Performance
One of the organizations leading the charge includes the team at the U.S. Naval Health Research Center located in San Diego that aims to improve the health, well-being, and performance of the United States military personnel and veterans. Their research revolves around monitoring and enhancing Warfighter performance and operational readiness through the integration of physical and cognitive monitoring.
The team at Naval Health Research Center uses cutting-edge wearable biometric sensors, including Hexoskin and Astroskin devices, to measure vital signs such as ECG, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and breathing rate in real-time and other important stress, fatigue, cognitive, and performance markers with heart rate variability (HRV). In their facilities that include simulation labs, driving simulators, and virtual reality (VR) environments, they are validating the accuracy and effectiveness of Hexoskin and Astroskin by comparing them with gold standard measurements. Their goal is to integrate solutions like Hexoskin & Astroskin with custom virtual reality programs and other research tools for comprehensive data analysis. The data collected will help them perform stress levels assessments, fatigue, and overall performance, leading to personalized training plans and strategies for stress and fatigue management for deployment in real-world scenarios.
Source: Astroskin Webinar: Amy Silder, PhD. Biomonitoring in Warfighter Performance
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) studied the performance and reliability of the Hexoskin garment. A Canadian Forces Health Services Group reserve unit used the Hexoskin garment during a two-day military field exercise that included reconnaissance, reacting to enemy fire, and providing tactical field care to casualties.
The final exercise was conducted over two nights and three days in moderate weather conditions in British Columbia, Canada.
Hexoskin was found to be comfortable during various environmental and weather conditions while continuously collecting cardiac, respiratory, activity, and sleep data.
Another innovative project with Astroskin is led by the Agence Innovation Defense under the Ministère des Armées in France. The SPEEN project aims to monitor pilots during flights, measuring their real-time health parameters including blood oxygen levels with the Astroskin SpO2 pulse oximeter. The project aims to alert pilots of unnoticed situations and predict critical conditions using artificial intelligence. Conceived by Ship-of-the-line lieutenant Christophe and supported by Frigate Captain Gautier, both test pilots at the Centre d'expérimentations pratiques et de réception de l'aéronautique navale (CEPA). The research involving Astroskin has been conducted in partnership with the Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées (IRBA), the Département de Médecine Aéronautique Opérationnelle (DMAO), Hexoskin and Knopé, Hexoskin's Distributor in France.
Source: Agence Innovation Défense
Thanks to their efforts and for enhancing flight safety by understanding and predicting unexplained physiological events during flight through individual data and AI, the team received the Prix de l'audace award given by the Ministère des Armées in 2022.
Reshaping Resiliency & Health Outcomes Beyond the Laboratory & Battlefield
By tracing new paths in human performance research and innovative technology applications, these efforts can support not only the resilience and well-being of active military personnel and warfighters but also provide better support and care to veterans, and beyond.
These groundbreaking studies and projects can also extend to the lives of veterans who transition to civilian life. As we refine our understanding of stress, fatigue, and resilience, the impact of the work accomplished can influence how we approach healthcare and well-being services to improve the quality of life of active personnel and our retired service members.
As we navigate unexplored frontiers, the journey extends beyond the laboratory and battlefield, shaping a future where the dedication of our armed forces is met with a reciprocal commitment to their lifelong health and success.
Contact Hexoskin today to discuss how the Hexoskin & Astroskin end-to-end platform can support your projects.
Now 200+ Scientific Publications with Hexoskin!
Research organizations publish more than ever with Hexoskin data! Hexoskin Scientific Community has surpassed a significant milestone by publishing over 200 scientific publications.
Hexoskin is the most popular smart clothing platform for health monitoring in the world, and its users have published more papers with Hexoskin and Astroskin devices than with all the competition combined.
The long list of papers covers cardiovascular health, respiratory monitoring, stress, sleep, space medicine, and many more subjects.
We've always believed transparency and collaboration are fundamental values necessary to the progress of science. This is why from the beginning we provided to our users tools to conduct investigations, collect data from research participants, and an open API to access every data point collected and automate data processing tasks. From these tools has emerged a dynamic research community pushing our understanding of human physiology.
Since 2012, Hexoskin has supported thousands of clients with end-to-end and flexible solutions to fit all their needs and bring new capabilities for leading research and projects. Hexoskin now reaches more than 50 countries and is used by top universities, research institutes, hospitals, government, defense, police, and first responders organizations in addition to companies in many industries.
Our Hexoskin + Research program aims to support student and academic researchers every step of the way. Hexoskin also supports professionals and innovative companies with our program Hexoskin + Professionals.
Contact our team to discuss how Hexoskin can support you with tailored solutions to help you find answers to your next big questions.
Universities and Research Labs Harnessing Hexoskin and Astroskin for Their Cutting-Edge Projects
In the rapidly evolving landscape of health research, the integration of cutting-edge technologies has become paramount for advancing scientific exploration and discovery. The pursuit of innovative methodologies and tools to enhance the precision and scope of health research is a shared concern for academic institutions and researchers worldwide.
Each new research or discovery presents a set of constraints and challenges that researchers and students must go through to secure funding, navigate Institutional Review Boards and Ethics committees and recruit and retain participants, while balancing schedules and pressure to publish. Additionally, obtaining access to specialized equipment and generating high-quality data, sometimes across multiple facilities, can incur significant costs and time commitments. The need for accessible solutions that support researchers and students in their data collection, analysis and interpretation has emerged as a pivotal requirement for universities aspiring to position their institution as top research and innovation hubs on the national and global stage.
This is why leading research institutions including McGill University, Alma College, Salzburg University, TELUQ, The University of Arizona, and the University of Alberta, to name a few, have embraced cutting-edge technologies like Hexoskin and Astroskin as integral components of their laboratory equipment & research methodologies to conduct their projects thanks to their relative lower costs for collecting multiparameters high-resolution data and advanced study management and analytics tools.
An illustrative example of an academic institution's commitment to supporting its research community is the University of Arizona's SensorLab. Funded by the University of Arizona Strategic Plan, SensorLab is a Health Sciences initiative bringing students, faculty, industry and community partners together to pioneer human-centered sensor systems. The laboratory connects researchers across disciplines, within health sciences and beyond, to develop a range of health-oriented technologies and digital solutions, including AI, VR, and mobile apps. SensorLab is outfitted with gold-standard and state-of-the-art sensor systems like Hexoskin, environmental monitoring, 360 video and audio recording, XR, coupled with analytical tools and multimodal feedback capabilities to push forward the next generation of sensor-based investigation and discovery.
For students, SensorLab provides two key services: lending equipment and sensors for shared use, as well as dedicated research spaces configured for sensor-based projects. Students can engage at varying levels, from borrowing hardware to actively contributing to the design and development of sensor-driven research.
Over the years, Hexoskin has made it easier for research clients and developers to leverage fully the Hexoskin and Astroskin platform and collaborate on premises and remotely. Research groups such as the team behind the WE SENSE study at McGill University can answer research questions and hypothesis by leveraging the additional sensors provided with Astroskin or Hexoskin to determine the health parameters and metrics that are most relevant to answer their research questions and build their models. Given that Hexoskin and Astroskin offer processed and raw data in multiple formats suitable for advanced analysis, researchers are leveraging the online dashboard and API to extract the data to work on their models using machine learning and artificial intelligence methods.
Other research groups like at Salzburg University are going further in their experimentations by leveraging the SDK tools available to developers for Hexoskin and Astroskin to access the raw data in real time enabling them to build ground breaking apps while also leveraging the data collected in their research to publish scientific papers.
With a presence in over 50 countries and growing, Hexoskin & Astroskin have been adopted and shared across organizations and labs to conduct and deliver projects.
Contact Hexoskin today to discuss how the Hexoskin & Astroskin end-to-end platform can support your projects.
Interview with HITLAB on Medical Data Infrastructure, Automation and AI
In this video interview with HITLAB at Columbia University in New York, Hexoskin's CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier discusses how fundamental building medical data infrastructure was to enable automation and AI - tools to make healthcare delivery more efficient and more accessible.
The lack of electronic medical records and data standards has slowed progress in digital health and AI in the 2000s and 2010s. Today the infrastructure is ready to make data collected by patients actionable and valuable.
This new IT environment (EHR/EMRs, broadband, FIRH, HL7, smart phones, and wearables) accelerates automation and AI development, digital biomarker discovery, personalized medicine and new health prevention services.
Hexoskin is building on this infrastructure to offer high-resolution vital signs monitoring with Hexoskin and Astroskin wearables, apps to collect patient reported outcomes and events, could storage, data automation and cohort management.
Please reach out to see how Hexoskin can help.
Conversation with Dr. Martin Gershon of Endeavor Venture Fund
Dr. Martin Gershon, Managing Partner/CIO of Endeavor Venture Fund and physician entrepreneur, had a 30 minutes conversation today with Hexoskin's CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier.
They talked about the journey of Hexoskin and the new landscape for medical wearables, connected sensors, digital biomarkers, the future of diagnostics and clinical research. They also emphasized the importance of collaboration and community to build innovative solutions that benefit patients, caregivers, and providers.
The live webinar recording is available below.
HITLAB Digital Health Summit 2023 - Hexoskin Video
Our CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier presented some of Hexoskin's efforts to solve the evidence gap for healthcare and clinical trials at Columbia University last month, and HITLAB recently made the 15 minutes video available online below.
Clinical evidence is what makes medical discoveries possible: that's how we measure safety and efficacy, and that's how we measure efficiency gains in healthcare delivery. When we lower the cost of evidence, we make care more accessible and affordable. This is an important part of our mission at Hexoskin.
In the video you'll see a few examples of our work at Hexoskin, from clinical research to AI development to human spaceflight.
The Hexoskin and Astroskin platform has been used to collect health data for over 200 scientific publications. White papers about wearable sensors applications for health monitoring of are available upon request.
Arab Astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi Participates in Astroskin Supported Research Aboard the International Space Station
Sultan Al Neyadi is an Emirati astronaut and one of the first two astronauts from the United Arab Emirates, along with Hazza Al Mansouri. As part of Expedition 69, he's participating in the longest Arab space mission in history!
Sultan Al Neyadi was launched into orbit February 26th, 2023 aboard SpaceX's Crew-6 mission, which was also carrying Astroskin resupply payload. He's involved in hundreds of scientific activities including 19 major scientific experiments for the UAE.
One of these experiments involves measuring his vital signs in the ISS space environment using the Bio-Monitor Astroskin wearable sensors system.
What I'm wearing isn't just any shirt. The Bio-Monitor smart shirt & headband I have on tracks vital health stats such as heart rate, blood pressure & more offering insights into our body's response to microgravity. This technology can be a game-changer for remote healthcare.🩺🔬 pic.twitter.com/e6YHC975kK
— Sultan AlNeyadi (@Astro_Alneyadi) May 31, 2023
Astroskin Abord the ISS
The Astroskin Bio-Monitor system first reached the International Space Station in December 2018, and has been commissionned by Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques in January 2019. The wearable vital signs monitoring system has since been used by astronauts to participate in one of the many ongoing research projects on human physiology in microgravity using the platform.
Astroskin is also used by hundreds of researchers on Earth to push the boundaries of medical knowledge.
Here's a list of space launches that carried Astroskin payloads as of June 2023:
- SpaceX CRS-16 (December 5th, 2018)
- Cygnus NG-11 (April 17th, 2019)
- SpaceX CRS-18 (July 25th, 2019)
- SpaceX CRS-19 (December 5th, 2019
- SpaceX CRS-20 (March 7th, 2020)
- Cygnus NG-14 (October 3rd, 2020)
- SpaceX CRS-21 (December 6th, 2020)
- SpaceX CRS-22 (June 3rd, 2021)
- SpaceX CRS-23 (August 29th, 2021)
- SpaceX Crew-4 (April 27th, 2022)
- SpaceX Crew-5 (October 5th, 2022)
- SpaceX Crew-6 (February 26th, 2023)
- SpaceX NG-19 (May 6th, 2023)
- SpaceX CRS-28 (June 5th, 2023)
Hexoskin at HITLAB Digital Health Summit 2023 in New York
Hexoskin's co-founder and CEO, Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, has been invited to speak at the prestigious HITLAB Innovator Summit 2023, hosted at Columbia University in New York City this June 27-29.
In the past 10 years we have seen enormous progress in the use of digital technologies in healthcare to support a wide range of activities: remote care, remote diagnostics, access to medical data, artificial intelligence, virtual clinical trials, genetic analysis, digital biomarker development, molecule discovery, etc. Despite all this progress, patients, physicians, scientists and researchers agree we have barely started to use digital tools to address our growing need for efficient healthcare, therapies and population health management.
The event includes speakers from Merck, Takeda, Pfizer, Syneos, Medidata, CVS, Novo Nordisk, Microsoft, Mount Sinai Health System, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and many other organizations working to improve human health and access to care.
Please reach out to us if you'd like to arrange a meeting during the event: contact@hexoskin.com
Tickets are still available, and you can get 20% off with the special code SUMMITPAF23.
About Hexoskin
Founded in 2006 in Montreal, Hexoskin is a leader in wearable sensors, software, data science & AI services. The company provides solutions and services to researchers & professionals in pharmaceuticals, academics, healthcare, defense, first responders, space, and aerospace organizations.
Hexoskin's Co-Founder and CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier on The Bleeding Edge of Digital Health Podcast
In this episode of the Bleeding Edge of Digital Health, host Mike Moore speaks with entrepreneur, scientist, and co-founder of Hexoskin, Pierre-Alexander Fournier.
Mike and Pierre talk about how his latest tech garment is being utilized in health care today, how it is benefiting not just the patient but the physician as well, and more importantly, the future products and garments in Hexoskin’s pipeline that will pave the way for further innovation and change the way we take care of our health, and the health of the ones we care about. Be sure to listen to the entire session.
Notable Quotes
“So, we're working on different garments. We do have another product that has more sensors called the Astroskin that is being used in research, and that's the product that is being used in the space station right now for different research projects in microgravity. The Astroskin is the model Chris Hemsworth is wearing in Limitless.”
“Research groups we're working with have built the largest database of vital signs for many specific health conditions. So, there are a lot of things that will come out of it. And as I said earlier, we're not just building a product for single use. Eventually, we're going to add blocks to that platform so that it can be used for several types of disease, and it's going to become a great bundle for people with comorbidities.”
Podcast links:
CGI and Hexoskin to Work Together on Connected Medical Clinic Project
The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has awarded contracts to five teams to build prototypes of the Connected Care Medical Module (C²M²), a container-based concept for mobile medical clinics that can be rapidly deployed in remote, northern, or indigenous communities across Canada, in regions affected by natural disasters, and in future lunar and deep space missions.
Hexoskin (Carré Technologies Inc.) is proud to be part of the HARMONY team, led by CGI, one of the largest IT firms in the world, along with OKAKI Health Intelligence, PrecisionOS Technology, 12Volt: Games Studio, and Dr. Carolyn McGregor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Hexoskin will contribute Astroskin devices and AI-based medical software to the project. A first demonstration is planned for June 2023.
About the Connected Care Medical Modules
Health Beyond's vision is to enable agile, rapid prototyping and iterative operation of C²M²s on Earth, with the ultimate objective of operation in space. A C²M² is a scalable integrated system of state-of-the-art medical technologies and methodologies contained in a deployable unit. A shipping container will first be used for research and development purposes and for easy deployment across Canada via the existing intermodal freight transportation network. When preparing for space application and deployment in remote communities with collaborators, the medical module can be scaled down and adapted as needed.
One of the novel features of the C²M² is its core computer-based system that facilitates the incorporation, interconnection (i.e., flow of information), and usage of the latest medical technologies. This plug and play architecture will enable multiple configurations based on the end users' needs. These technologies increase the user's capacity to independently detect, diagnose, treat, and/or monitor health conditions on site. This improves the timeliness, quality, and continuity of care; refines clinical decision-making; and reduces the occurrence of risky and expensive medical transportation of patients from remote regions to urban hospital facilities.
(photo: Canadian Space Agency)
