News

7th Astroskin Space Payload to Launch with SpaceX Mission CRS-21

Hexoskin is set to launch its 7th Astroskin payload in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency this week aboard a SpaceX rocket.

CRS-21 is the first launch of phase 2 of SpaceX's Commercial Resupply Service (CRS) contract. The mission will use the Cargo version of the Dragon 2 spacecraft on top of a Falcon 9 rocket launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This mission is planned to use Booster B1058.4 (4th flight for booster B1058). This recent booster is the one that carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station on May 30th, 2020, the first US rocket carrying astronauts since Space Shuttle Atlantis in July 2011.

Microgravity affects fluid movements in the body and heat transmission (in the absence of convection movement in microgravity). This triggers physiological phenomena impossible to monitor on the ground and tests our models of human physiology. The Astroskin Bio-Monitor system gives scientists a tool to observe these phenomena in space. It also prepares us to maintain crew health during long space missions beyond low earth orbit (LEO), to the Moon and Mars.

Astronauts from 3 different space agencies (NASA, CSA, ESA) have used the Astroskin system aboard the International Space Station since January 2019.

Here's a list of space launches that carried Astroskin payloads:

1. SpaceX CRS-16 (December 5th, 2018)
2. Cygnus NG-11 (April 17th, 2019)
3. SpaceX CRS-18 (July 25th, 2019)
4. SpaceX CRS-19 (December 5th, 2019
5. SpaceX CRS-20 (March 7th, 2020)
6. Cygnus NG-14 (October 3rd, 2020)
7. SpaceX CRS-21 (December 6th, 2020)

Information about Astroskin missions aboard the ISS:

Stanford Wearable Electronic Initiative - Hexoskin Seminar

Hexoskin's CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier was invited to speak at a seminar co-hosted by Stanford eWEAR and Stanford Medicine's Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics Center (PHIND) held online on December 1st. The seminar covered the capabilities of wearable technologies and Hexoskin to support the early detection of diseases such as the COVID-19 onset.

With over 100 Scientific Publications and validations, Hexoskin has the only clinically validated biometric garment which provides continuous monitoring of numerous and unique physiological parameters. It is an enabling technology for telehealth use cases, such as remote patient monitoring, at-home cardiovascular and pulmonary rehabilitation, and post-acute care.

Along with its smart clothing, Hexoskin offers a unique set of high-resolution biometric data that can continuously monitor activity, sleep, cardiac and respiratory data. Projects in fields such as cardiology, respiratory, behavioral and physiological psychology, biofeedback research, sleep research, and health will be presented during the seminar.

The Hexoskin Connected Health Platform provides researchers with accessible solutions such as the Hexoskin Dashboards, Open API, and Apps to manage, visualize, annotate, analyze, and export raw & processed health data. Data extraction tools allow access to the raw data with time series for machine learning and artificial intelligence projects, making Hexoskin and excellent solution to collect high-resolution data quickly to deliver projects and results. Watch it online today!

Remote Monitoring Solutions for Clinical Research During the COVID-19 Pandemic & Beyond

With another wave of COVID-19 patients hitting North America and Europe, conducting clinical research is challenging. Patient recruitment and access to facilities are limited in many research institutions to limit risks to participants and researchers.

Thankfully, we can now conduct a lot of research remotely while ensuring the collection of high-quality data and preserving the integrity of clinical assessments. 

Virtual and Home-Based Clinical Trials With the Hexoskin Connected Health Platform

Sponsors and CROs are looking for solutions to help them manage halted clinical trials or start new trials while ensuring that key considerations are met. Connected devices like the Hexoskin shirts are available to support the collection of objective sensor data for virtual and home-based studies. Smartphones can also provide instructions, interactive sessions, and facilitate clinical outcome assessments with limited supervision. Recruitment can be done online with the equipment required for the study shipped overnight to participants.

The Hexoskin Connected Health Platform is an end-to-end open platform that supports virtual clinical trials which can be completed partially or entirely remotely. The Hexoskin team can help you and your team design protocols and patient-centered studies. Home-based trials give patients better options to join clinical trials while limiting the burden associated with transportation and site visits. Online reach helps you recruit a more diverse participant base and overcome recruiting challenges.

Since the launch of Hexoskin in 2013, hundreds of researchers have used the Hexoskin platform successfully for their research using Hexoskin and Astroskin systems. They appreciate the transparency and traceability the platform offers. Hexoskin also provides service-level support and a wide range of study-management tools designed to support remote patient monitoring protocols.

More than ever, patients are counting on the work of the clinical research industry to push the boundaries of medical knowledge.

Let's work together to support trial continuity and patient engagement! Contact us at contact@hexoskin.com to discuss your objectives and explore how Hexoskin can help you scale your remote studies.

Now 100+ Publications with Hexoskin!

Today Hexoskin has reached an important milestone. The Hexoskin Connected Health Platform has been used in over 100 scientific & peer-reviewed publications thanks to our community of researchers and scientists dedicated to promoting safe and effective remote monitoring technologies!

But who’s counting? Actually... we do! Our Hexoskin Smart Clothing solutions benefit from the most validation and publications in the industry, accounting for more than all the smart clothing competition combined.

A Connected Health Platform Fit for Various Research Fields

The publications and validations studies cover a wide range of fields of study from scientific validations of the Hexoskin Cardiac, Pulmonary, and Activity smart clothing sensors; to various subjects and health applications.

It’s been such a wonderful experience to reach this milestone and we are thankful for the trust placed in our Hexoskin Connected Health Solutions. We can’t wait to continue this journey to improve evidence-based practice for patients and professionals by bringing science to new levels! 

White Paper: Stress Monitoring with Hexoskin

Chronic stress induces harmful and insidious repercussions on the general state of health of individuals. The effects of stressors are not always immediate and can persist over time, particularly if the stressor is consistently present. As the tolerance level of individuals varies according to type, intensity, and length of the stressor, monitoring the impact of chronic stress on human physiology must be performed in a similar fashion. Ambulatory devices fulfill such requirements, as they are geared towards collecting real-world evidence to identify biometric variations and support the development and implementation of preventative approaches. However, few current portable technologies allow for multiple physiological data points to be measured simultaneously, continuously, all while being contextualized. 

Assessment of Stress and Overall Health Status
with Hexoskin 

To learn more about Hexoskin’s digital health solutions for Stress monitoring, we invite you to request our latest White Paper titled: 

Predicting and Preventing Operational Stress Injuries Using the Hexoskin Connected Health Platform.

In this White Paper, we explore: 

• The urgent need for stress monitoring in First Responders, Law Enforcement and Healthcare populations
• The potential Cardiac, Respiratory and Sleep markers supporting our stress monitoring efforts
• The implementation of precision medicine to fulfill internal guidelines of personalized prevention/intervention programs

Conversation on Stress Monitoring with Hexoskin

During these challenging times, the health of healthcare workers is now in the spotlight. Healthcare staff are experiencing stressful events which could lead to operational stress injury (OSI). If not assessed and addressed early, OSI can lead to post-traumatic stress injuries. 

Our guest speaker, Dr. Nicholas Slamon (former director of the Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children) has kindly shared his experience and work with Hexoskin during our Webinar on Stress Monitoring with Hexoskin. Dr. Slamon and colleagues assessed the feasibility of using Hexoskin to monitor physiological data of pediatric critical care physicians during real-life contexts and stressful medical situations. Ultimately, Dr. Slamon aimed to characterize critical care stressors that might over time impact the physicians’ performance and general health.

Stress Monitoring with Hexoskin, Webinar. Request the Webinar's recording

Do you have a project in mind? Looking for advice on how wearables & smart garments can monitor patients continuously and remotely to gather real-world evidence for your project? 

Contact our experienced team at sales@hexoskin.com or call  1 888 887 2044.

Hexoskin at the Virtual MedTech Conference: Sessions Explore Everything from Outer Space to the Hospital of the Future

Hexoskin's CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier joined astronaut David Saint-Jacques and other panelists this week to discuss innovation in space medicine at the Virtual MedTech Conference.

After 20 years of continuous human presence on the International Space Station, countries from around the world are getting ready to send humans farther into our solar system, beyond Earth's orbit. Technologies required to support long-duration missions, such as to Mars and back to the moon, will be critical to the next 50 years of space exploration.

The Canadian Space Agency, numerous innovative Canadian medical technology companies and the National Research Council of Canada, are performing key research to develop and incorporate novel medical devices solutions for long-duration human spaceflight.

Cutting-edge microgravity research and space-relevant clinical expertise are critical to ensure an autonomous crew health care system. Canadian scientists, clinicians and specialists have developed and demonstrated new devices for remote clinical care including point of care diagnostics and real-time astronaut monitoring.

Among these innovations, Hexoskin has launched the wearable Astroskin Bio-Monitor system to the International Space Station in 2018 to monitor astronaut's vital signs. The system is used since for medical research in micro-gravity but also for research on Earth by a wide community of clinicians working in universities and research centers around the world.

The video of the MedTech Conference panel has been published and is available on the conference platform for attendees here: https://medtechvirtual2020.pathable.co/meetings/virtual/v98noBALBh3R4Xa5e

To learn more on Astroskin Vital Signs Monitoring Platform, Download Astroskin Product Specifications or contact us.

Intelligent Health AI Summit 2020: Hexoskin's CEO Discusses Chronic Disease Management and AI Solutions for Healthcare

For a second year, Hexoskin was invited to present at the Intelligent Health AI Summit.

On Wednesday, September 9th, Hexoskin's Co-founder & CEO Pierre-Alexandre Fournier gave a presentation on chronic disease management and the challenges of data collection when developing AI solutions for healthcare.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Intelligent Health AI Summit 2020 is held online. To view the program and to register please follow this link: https://intelligenthealth.ai/programme/

• Pierre-Alexandre Fournier, Co-Founder and CEO, Hexoskin: 
  Pierre-Alexandre Fournier is CEO and co-founder of Hexoskin, a Montreal-based company focused on clinical-grade wearable sensors and AI software for health and clinical research. Hexoskin was founded in 2006 and launched in 2013 the first iPhone compatible smart clothing for health monitoring, which won several international awards. In 2018 Hexoskin launched a remote health monitoring system for astronauts to the International Space Station. The Hexoskin data collection and analytics platform has been used in more than 95 scientific publications. Pierre-Alexandre is also an advocate for transparency in healthcare, patient empowerment, and healthcare innovation through design.

Hexoskin has a dedicated group of AI & biomedical researchers with years of experience in preparing and analyzing health data, and in the development of machine learning algorithms with health data. Our research team support the collection of vital signs with smart clothing and use external datasets to answer novel research questions.

If you wish to learn more on Hexoskin's Artificial Intelligence capabilities for Cardiovascular & Respiratory Health Research, we invite you to request access to our Webinar, with our Co-founders Pierre-Alexandre Fournier and Jean-François Roy, and our guest speaker Dr. Thomas Beltrame PhD. Department of Physiotherapy - Federal University of São Carlos. Institute of Computing - University of Campinas. Request the Webinar's recording

Contact us to learn more about how Hexoskin can support you. 

Webinar on Continuous & Remote Respiratory Monitoring With Hexoskin

We thank all our attendees and Guests Speakers who participated in our Live Webinar on Continuous & Remote Respiratory Monitoring with Hexoskin - In the Era of Chronic Illness, Pandemics & Limited Health Resources, on August 25th, 2020! If you were not able to attend live, and wish to watch it, you can now access the Webinar's recording:

Over 250 guests registered for this panel with our guest speakers Dr. Dennis Jensen (McGill University), and Denise Mannée (Radboud University Medical Center). In this session we discussed the benefits and considerations of digital technologies for Healthcare Providers, Researchers and Patients, and provide real-world evidence of Hexoskin's remote respiratory monitoring capabilities.

If you couldn't attend, and wish to watch it, you can now request access to the Webinar's recording. Thank you for your interest and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Register to the Upcoming Live Webinar on Continuous & Remote Respiratory Monitoring with Hexoskin

The introduction of digital technologies has promulgated innovative platforms aimed at reducing the gaps in respiratory disease management and research. How are they used? How can we distinguish effective programs from the hundreds of available digital solutions? This webinar will discuss the benefits and considerations of digital technologies for Healthcare Providers, Researchers and Patients, and provide real-world evidence of Hexoskin's remote respiratory monitoring capabilities.

Join us with our guest speakers on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, at 11:00 AM (EDT), for the upcoming Hexoskin Live Webinar on Continuously & Remote Respiratory Monitoring. If you are unable to attend, you can still register and we will send you the recorded webinar by email afterwards. 

Guest Speakers: 

• Dr. Dennis Jensen: 
  Associate Professor, Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education, at McGill University.
  Dennis Jensen's research focuses on identifying the causes of activity-related breathing discomfort (dyspnea) and exercise intolerance in health, variants of health (e.g., elderly, obesity) and in patients with chronic cardiorespiratory disease, specifically chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
  
  
• Denise Mannée: 
  PhD Candidate & Technical Physician, Department of Pulmonology, at Radboundumc University.
  Denise Mannée was born in Amersfoort, Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1992. She received B.S. and M.S. degree in Technical Medicine from the University of Twente in 2013 and 2017. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in medicine at the Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands. Since 2017, she was a junior researcher at the Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Gelderland, The Netherlands. Her research interest includes lung physiology, the development of home monitoring devices and improvement of patient care.

Moderator:

• Maria Athanassiou: Medical Science Liaison at Hexoskin

 We look forward to your presence for this special event!

White Paper: A comparative Perspective on Wearables Key Features for Advanced Respiratory Monitoring

Over the last few weeks, the global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has dramatically increased, leading to critically elevated hospitalization rates and emergency room overcrowding [1]. Shortage of beds and equipment in addition to staff exhaustion are aggravating the already fragile and precarious situation in hospitals [2–4]. This setting has created an unprecedented strain on healthcare systems, thereby compromising the quality of patient care [2,4]. Despite the concerted efforts of scientists and clinicians to find an effective vaccine, this health crisis will likely persist longer than expected [5]. Therefore, all efforts should be directed to confirm and deploy approaches to relieve healthcare systems before they crumble under pressure [3,4,6,7]. One such strategy is the early recognition of clinical deterioration, which limits the spread of the disease and reduces unnecessary hospital demands [4].

A growing body of evidence supports the clinical relevance of respiratory rate (RR) as a key predictor for adverse health outcomes [8–11]. In patients affected by COVID-19, an increase of RR can be a warning sign for patient deterioration and criteria for ICU transfer [12]. Massaroni et al. suggested that the current situation has ironically generated the perfect conditions for wearables to demonstrate their worth and capabilities to alleviate caregivers’ workload in this time of crisis. According to the authors, digital health respiratory monitoring technologies can provide relevant data to facilitate effective remote triage, diagnosis and symptoms monitoring. This will positively impact care assistance for self-isolated patients [13]. A wide variety of technologies for RR monitoring have been developed, tested and are commercially available [14–16]. However, these portable health technologies are not all comparable in terms of design, validity and usability [14–19].

Hexoskin stands out against other contenders in the respiratory field as a result of its strong presence in research publications, but also in consequence of the clinical validation of its biometric data [14,16]. Hexoskin supports professionals & researchers to improve their standards of care and research by providing cutting edge health sensors, and state-of-the-art health data management & analysis software.

To learn more about Hexoskin’s digital health solutions for RR monitoring, we invite you to download our latest White Paper titled: A comparative Perspective on Wearables Key Features for Advanced Respiratory Monitoring. In this White Paper, we explore:

• The speculative world of emerging respiratory monitoring technologies.
• The key features for advanced respiratory monitoring.
• Hexoskin’s unique capabilities to remotely monitor respiratory volumes and patterns through rich and high-resolution respiratory data integrated with the Hexoskin’s end-to-end platform (i.e. interoperable software solutions, secure and private infrastructure and machine learning services) to support research and professional organizations.

References:

1. World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report-197. 2020.
2. Mishra S. Hospital overcrowding. Western Journal of Medicine 2001 ; 174 : 170–170.
3. Shoukat A, Wells CR, Langley JM, et al. Projecting demand for critical care beds during COVID-19 outbreaks in Canada. CMAJ 2020 ; 192 : E489–E496.
4. Whiteside T, Kane E, Aljohani B, et al. Redesigning emergency department operations amidst a viral pandemic. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine 2020 ; 38 : 1448–1453.
5. Adhanom Ghebreyesus T. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 3 August 2020. 2020.
6. Government of Canada. The “smart shirts” helping reduce the pressure COVID-19 is putting on hospitals. 2020.
7. Verelst F, Kuylen E, Beutels P. Indications for healthcare surge capacity in European countries facing an exponential increase in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, March 2020. Eurosurveillance 2020 ; 25.
8. Cretikos MA, Bellomo R, Hillman K, et al. Respiratory rate: the neglected vital sign. Medical Journal of Australia 2008 ; 188 : 657–659.
9. Garrido D, Assioun JJ, Keshishyan A, et al. Respiratory Rate Variability as a Prognostic Factor in Hospitalized Patients Transferred to the Intensive Care Unit. Cureus 2018.
10. Keshvani N, Berger K, Gupta A, et al. Improving Respiratory Rate Accuracy in the Hospital: A Quality Improvement Initiative. J Hosp Med 2019 ; 14 : 673–677.
11. Van Diest I, Thayer JF, Vandeputte B, et al. Anxiety and respiratory variability. Physiology & Behavior 2006 ; 89 : 189–195.
12. Sun Q, Qiu H, Huang M, et al. Lower mortality of COVID-19 by early recognition and intervention: experience from Jiangsu Province. Ann. Intensive Care 2020 ; 10 : 33.
13. Massaroni C, Nicolò A, Schena E, et al. Remote Respiratory Monitoring in the Time of COVID-19. Front. Physiol. 2020 ; 11 : 635.
14. Khundaqji H, Hing W, Furness J, et al. Smart Shirts for Monitoring Physiological Parameters: Scoping Review. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2020 ; 8 : e18092.
15. Massaroni C, Nicolò A, Lo Presti D, et al. Contact-Based Methods for Measuring Respiratory Rate. Sensors 2019 ; 19 : 908.
16. Soon S, Svavarsdottir H, Downey C, et al. Wearable devices for remote vital signs monitoring in the outpatient setting: an overview of the field. BMJ Innov 2020 ; 6 : 55–71.
17. Aliverti A. Wearable technology: role in respiratory health and disease. Breathe 2017 ; 13 : e27–e36.
18. Düking P, Hotho A, Holmberg H-C, et al. Comparison of Non-Invasive Individual Monitoring of the Training and Health of Athletes with Commercially Available Wearable Technologies. Front. Physiol. 2016 ; 7.
19. Peake JM, Kerr G, Sullivan JP. A Critical Review of Consumer Wearables, Mobile Applications, and Equipment for Providing Biofeedback, Monitoring Stress, and Sleep in Physically Active Populations. Front. Physiol. 2018 ; 9 : 743