High-Tech T-Shirt Monitors Patients’ Vital Signs Post-Surgery
TUESDAY, March 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) – Researchers have developed a high-tech T-shirt packed with sensors designed to monitor patients’ vital signs after they leave the hospital. Findings suggest the shirt may help patients recover at home sooner.
The study focused on patients recovering from robotic-assisted urological surgery for cancer. “Our patients found the T-shirt easy to use and over 90% reported it allowed them to feel safe and cared for while recuperating at home,” said Dr. Antonio Pastore, an associate professor of urology at Sapienza University of Rome in Italy.
The researchers designed a lightweight T-shirt embedded with sensors that track heart electrical activity, respiration, heart rate, body temperature, and other key data. This information is then transmitted to an app and web-based software. “The T-shirt we gave to patients differs from smartwatches and other wearables,” Pastore explained. “It can reveal more data, including electrolytes, which we need to continue to monitor after bladder surgery as they can reveal mineral imbalances that lead to serious complications.”
Researchers compared 35 patients who wore the sensor-laden T-shirt after surgery to a control group of 35 patients who received standard care. The standard care patients were typically discharged three to five days post-surgery. In contrast, those wearing the T-shirt were often discharged a day to a day and a half earlier and asked to wear the telemonitoring garment in three-hour intervals each day for about two weeks.
The results indicated that approximately 26% of patients in the standard care group needed to return to the hospital before their scheduled follow-up appointments. In contrast, this rate was only 6% for patients using the smart T-shirt. The wearable also detected early signs of heart problems in five patients, allowing for prompt diagnosis and treatment.
“In Italy, where standard discharge time after this type of robotic-assisted urological surgery can be at least 72 hours, being able to allow patients home sooner improves their quality of life… and it means we can free up hospital beds too,” Dr. Pastore said.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the European Association of Urology in Madrid. It’s important to note that findings presented at medical meetings are preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Dr. Maarten Albersen, a urologist and the EAU meeting chair, stated, “This sensory T-shirt appears to be a promising remote monitoring technology for helping patients to recover well at home after robotic-assisted urological surgery.”
“The trial is early stage, but the insights are very interesting, particularly since patients strongly accepted the wearable and it was able to detect complications in real-time and reduce unnecessary rehospitalizations,” Albersen said. However, Albersen also cautioned, “given the small size and preliminary nature of the trial, before we can see this sort of wearable in clinical practice more data is needed on its ability to support earlier discharge from hospital, and its true impact on outcomes and cost-effectiveness.”
