Development and validation of SafeSleep, a smart, accessible, and convenient textile-based technology for remote monitoring of sleep apnea in high-risk population at home

Sleep apnea, which affects 10% of adults, is a disorder that causes breathing to repeatedly stop during sleep, leading to reduced blood oxygen and fragmented sleep. It increases the risk of HF by four times, of hypertension or stroke by three times, and doubles the risk of car accidents. Health care utilization is doubled in sleep apnea patients, and untreated sleep apnea doubles HF mortality and triples COPD mortality. Despite the grave implications of this disorder, 85-90% of individuals with sleep apnea are not aware that they have it and are undiagnosed. One reason for the high rate of underdiagnosed sleep apnea is the reference sleep test requires overnight in-laboratory screening with attachments of >20 sensors on the body. Therefore, it is inconvenient, costly, with long waiting list. Current portable home sleep monitoring devices are either expensive, or inconvenient. The goal of this research is to develop a textile-based sleep screening wearable, called SafeSleep, in the form of a shirt.

Faculty Supervisor:

Azadeh Yadollahi;Joseph Cafazzo;Yasbanoo Moayedi;Quynh Pham

Student:

Partner:

Vee Canada Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program: