Health Updates

Dressed to Live: Lifesaving Vests

Do you have a favorite shirt, jacket, or hat? There is no question that clothes can make you feel good about yourself. Can you imagine what it would be like to own a piece of clothing that could save your life?

Now, thanks to advances in computer electronics and medical science, such a garment exists. Meet LifeShirt, the brainchild of a California Internet company, LifeShirt.com. LifeShirt looks like an ordinary tank top, but that's where the similarity ends. True to its name, LifeShirt can save lives—and already has.

One Size Fits All (Lifestyles)

LifeShirt is made of lightweight cotton and is worn under regular clothes. Whether the user is simply sitting, walking, or playing sports, LifeShirt is at work. Six built-in sensors record more than 40 vital signs, including heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure. These signs are updated every 3 thousandths of a second. The data are stored in a small computer on the person's belt. They are uploaded at regular intervals to the LifeShirt.com website. There they are analyzed by doctors and technicians.

To ensure total privacy, the site is "secure." Only the wearer and doctor have access to the information.

Although LifeShirt is not the first health monitoring device to come along, it has distinct advantages over earlier devices. For one thing, it provides doctors with a patient's health status 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Also, it allows the doctor to monitor patients in their natural environment.

Yet another benefit is an increased level of patient care in hospital settings. Hospitals historically have been understaffed. They have a patient-to-nurse ratio of 15 to 1, meaning that patients seldom get all the care they need. LifeShirt has begun to change that situation in the more than 1,000 hospitals worldwide that have adopted it.

Life Vest

LifeShirt has already proved to be a lifesaver for individuals with breathing problems, such as asthma and sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which a person involuntarily stops breathing. Individuals recovering from a stroke or heart attack have also been helped by this lifesaving device. Other possible uses of the shirt include monitoring:

• stress
• anxiety
• cancer pain
• problems and complications that can occur following surgery.

Coming to a Store Near You?

A consumer version of LifeShirt is due to appear in on the market next fall. Don't plan on owning one, though. The shirt and digital recorder will carry a price tag of about $250 plus a $30-a-day monitoring fee. That price may seem steep. For patients who require it, however, the cost is a small fraction of the cost of an extended hospital stay. Besides, you can't put a price on life.

Just the Facts

1. What does LifeShirt do, from a health standpoint? For whom is it designed?
2. Name two benefits of LifeShirt over earlier types of health-monitoring devices.
3. What illnesses has LifeShirt been used to treat?

Beyond the Facts

4. Would you agree with the statement that "LifeShirt has revolutionized health care in this country"? Why or why not?
5. Make a list of the pro's and cons of LifeShirt. Then write a short evaluation of the product telling whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or vice versa. Give reasons to support your argument.

Applying the Facts

LifeShirt is one of many technological medical innovations in a long line that includes the discovery of X rays, the development of MRI, the laser knife, and others. Working with a group, brainstorm others that you know of or have learned about. Choose one innovation from your list and determine in what year it first came into use. Use online or print resources. Develop a timeline based on your findings, and share it with the class.