Vital signs monitoring for the detection of COVID-19 symptoms via sustainable wearable e-textiles

Dr Shaila Afroj has been awarded a UWE Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher Development Award (2021/22) for the project Vital signs monitoring for the detection of COVID-19 symptoms via sustainable wearable e-textiles. 

Shaila aims to develop a new class of robust and reliable wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) that can self-monitor patients’ vital signs including temperature, heart rate and oxygen saturation level, enabling users or healthcare professionals to predict, prevent and diagnose diseases including COVID-19, remotely and continuously. Her previous   studies demonstrated the world’s first all-inkjet-printed graphene-based e-textiles, however, further work is necessary to produce robust and reliable wearable e-textiles. She will develop bio-compatible, water based and functionalised graphene dispersion. Design, formulate and characterise inkjet inks from graphene dispersion. And test sustainable digital fabrication of graphene-based conductive features on textiles.

The smart wearable e-textiles developed from this project will allow continuous monitoring of physiological signals remotely, which could then be used for early detection of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic cases of COVID-19, potentially reducing the community transmission via remote monitoring of infectious diseases. Unlike existing bulky, rigid and wired wearable devices, the wearable garment produced from this project will be flexible, washable and comfortable to wear.