Overview
- Researchers detailed the chest-worn system in Science Advances, which streams heart, breathing, sweat, blood-flow, and temperature data to a phone and weighs under 8 grams for 24-plus hours of use.
- The device was built at the request of Lurie Children’s clinicians to quantify stress in patients who cannot self-report, including infants and some older adults.
- Validation across simulated lie-detector interviews, tough cognitive tasks, cold-water exposure, and pediatric sleep studies produced results that closely matched commercial polygraphs and hospital sleep tests.
- During emergency-room training, stronger stress signatures tracked with poorer performance by medical trainees, pointing to how stress can hinder decisions under pressure.
- Next steps include larger clinical studies, personalized algorithms, integration into hospital and home monitoring, and exploration of adding EEG to help tell stress from pain.