OFSETH: Optical Fibre Embedded into technical Textile for Healthcare, an efficient way to monitor patient under magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

Healthcare monitoring is a general concern for patients requiring a continuous medical assistance and treatment. In order to increase mobility of such patients, a huge effort is pursued worldwide for the development of wearable monitoring systems able to measure vital physiological parameters such as respiratory movements, cardiac activity, pulse oximetry, temperature of the body [1]. Technical or smart textiles that incorporate different sensors play a growing role in these developments as they are well suited for wearability and can ensure comfort to the user [2, 3]. While most developments up to now have been focused on the use of electrical sensors, the aim of OFSETH [4] is to take advantage of pure optical sensing technologies for extending the capabilities of medical technical textiles for wearable health monitoring. OFSETH expects to achieve a breakthrough in healthcare monitoring applications where standard (non-optical) monitoring techniques show significant limits such as for the monitoring of anesthetized patients under Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI).