H.16 A shirt that sees through the lungs

About 5.7 million adults in the U.S. suffer from heart failure, and because of a dangerous buildup of fluid in their lungs, more than half of those patients end up back in the hospital within six months. The major cause of readmission for heart failure patients is excess fluid in the lungs. The patient often comes to the hospital with shortness of breath a few days after the water has built up in the lungs, and requires more than 2 days of hospitalization to treat.

The goal of this project would be to develop a shirt with chest embedded sensors that can monitor the level of water build-up in the lungs. This shirt can eventually be used in patients with heart failure to early detect pulmonary edema (water build-up in the lungs) in a remote fashion, and treat them as early as possible with a water pill, preventing rehospitalization and further costs on the patient and healthcare system.