Wearable tech aids stroke patients

groups work or not can really pinpoint the areas affected by the stroke and can target therapies to speci¿cally improve those issues.”

The sensors continue to send back readings even after she has ¿nished her exercises.

This means that her therapist Kristen Hohl, from the Shirley Ryan Abilitylab in Chicago, can monitor her progress at home.

“As a therapist, I think about what my patients are doing at home. Are they able to carry through the recommendations I’m giving them as a therapist to do more? Do we see that they are walking more or do we see them engaging in conversations?

“Those are the types of things that I can get feedback from the sensors where currently I have to rely on what they tell me they have done.”

The challenge for the scientists was to pack a lot of electronics on to a small Àexible material and still make it comfortable for the patient to wear for a long time.

John Rogers, of Northwestern University in Chicago, who developed the sensors, said, “It is almost mechanically imperceptible to the patient who is wearing the device.

“And you can embed all sorts of advanced sensor functionality, microprocessor computing capability, power supplies and Wifi into this very unusual platform, and that is the uniqueness of what we do.”

By the end of this year, the research team will have more information than ever before on stroke recovery. The scientists believe that their study could transform the way patients are treated in the future.