Clothes that monitor your health

How far are smart textiles from everyday health monitoring through clothing?

Shirts and undergarments with sensors woven or knitted into the fabric already record heart signals, and at least one garment platform has US clearance. The clinical studies read so far are small or short, and most involve older adults or people with atrial fibrillation. Washing degrades the conductive coatings and electrodes, and the sources read do not use a shared washing test, so no garment has a published wash limit that can be compared with others. Routine clinical use has not been shown.

AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.
WHERE WE AREPilots

Close. Early pilots are running in the real world.

Garment monitors are sold, and they have been used in clinical studies, including one study of 3,014 people reported in a review, so they have moved beyond single prototypes. They are not in routine clinical use. The validation studies read are small or short, and no shared washing test shows how long a garment keeps working. The fibre computer from MIT is a laboratory demonstration rather than a product.

The tech tree

Everything recorded on Vrulum that this future needs, oldest foundations at the top and the goal at the bottom. Lines show what each step requires.

What it takes: Clothes that monitor your health Unlocked Being researched Locked
  1. 2020Smart textilesResearch and prototypes Being researched.
  1. 2021US clearance for a cloth-based cardiac monitorDone Unlocked.
  2. 2025Single-fibre sensor computers shown in the labDone Unlocked.
  3. Date not recordedTextile electrodes record heart signalsDone Unlocked.
  4. Date not recordedTextile sensor shirt sold with a separate recorderDone Unlocked.
  5. Date not recordedClinical validation in people with heart rhythm problemsIn progress Being researched.
  6. Date not recordedWashing durability shown with comparable testsNot started Locked.
  7. Date not recordedGarments monitored in daily wear over monthsNot started Locked.
  8. Date not recordedRoutine clinical use with a defined pathwayNot started Locked.
  1. GoalClothes that monitor your healthGoalRequires: Smart textiles, Textile electrodes record heart signals, Textile sensor shirt sold with a separate recorder, US clearance for a cloth-based cardiac monitor, Clinical validation in people with heart rhythm problems, Single-fibre sensor computers shown in the lab, Washing durability shown with comparable tests, Garments monitored in daily wear over months, Routine clinical use with a defined pathway. Locked.

The road so far

4 of 8 steps done, 1 in progress.

  1. DoneTextile electrodes record heart signals

    Electrodes made from conductive fabric have recorded heart signals in wearable garments. A 2025 literature review by Avanu and Dodi covers studies from 2017 to 2024 and describes garment ECG recordings in four observational studies of people aged 60 and older. It is a literature review, not a systematic review or meta-analysis. [6]

  2. DoneTextile sensor shirt sold with a separate recorder

    Hexoskin sells a men's shirt with textile sensors. The product page says that a compatible Hexoskin recording device is sold separately and is needed to record the data. It describes the fabric as machine washable but gives no number of washes or care instructions. No medical or clinical claims are made on the page. [5]

  3. Done · 22 Sept 2021US clearance for a cloth-based cardiac monitor

    The FDA 510(k) database lists the SimpleSENSE Platform from Nanowear, Inc. (K212160) as substantially equivalent, with a decision date of 22 September 2021, product code DXH, and classification as a telephone electrocardiograph transmitter and receiver. Nanowear's press release dated 11 November 2020 says the company has received FDA Class II 510(k) clearance for a first-of-its-kind cloth-based diagnostic platform, SimpleSENSE. The release gives no decision date. The two dates are not reconciled in the sources read, and the indications for use were not read. [2][1]

  4. In progressClinical validation in people with heart rhythm problems

    Validation so far is small or short. In a 90-day study of a textile vest in 224 people with cryptogenic stroke, 27 per cent dropped out. The review by Avanu and Dodi describes NOMED-AF TECH, a study of 3,014 people using a two-lead smart vest, which reported 93 per cent sensitivity and 85 per cent specificity for atrial fibrillation. These figures are as reported in the review and were not checked against the original study. [6]

  5. Done · 26 Feb 2025Single-fibre sensor computers shown in the lab

    MIT News reports an elastic fibre with a microcontroller, Bluetooth and an embedded lithium-ion battery, which the article says lets it power itself. The fibre can stretch more than 60 per cent without failure. Each fibre was trained to recognise exercises such as squats, planks, arm circles and lunges, and one fibre averaged about 70 per cent accuracy. Four fibres, one on each limb, combined their results to nearly 95 per cent. The article gives no battery capacity or runtime. [9]

  6. Not startedWashing durability shown with comparable tests

    Conductive coatings lose performance in the wash. In a 2024 study of silver-coated conductive knitted fabric, surface resistance rose by 276 per cent after a neutral detergent wash in Table 4, although the Conclusions give 270 per cent. In a 2020 study of silver-plated textile electrodes, sodium percarbonate, a bleaching agent, took the electrodes above the 10 megaohm measuring range after 20 washes, and the authors recommended liquid detergent without bleaching agents. The studies use different wash counts, detergents and drying methods, so their results cannot be compared directly. [7][8]

  7. Not startedGarments monitored in daily wear over months

    The review by Avanu and Dodi raises questions about the scalability of one device for broader outpatient use and its reliability in less controlled environments. In a 90-day study of a textile vest in 224 people with cryptogenic stroke, 27 per cent dropped out, mainly because of device-related technical issues and patient non-compliance. The device needed about one hour of charging a day. The MIT fibre computers were planned for an Arctic field trial, but the article reports no results. [6][9]

  8. Not startedRoutine clinical use with a defined pathway

    The sources read do not show that garment monitors are part of routine clinical care or reimbursed for everyday use. Larger and longer studies with formal quality assessment are still needed before clinical use can be judged. [6]

Why it matters

Clothing that records heart rhythm could give doctors data between clinic visits without a separate device to fit, charge or remember. It could also reduce how often a patient has to wear a bulky chest recorder for a day or more. Whether this works in practice depends on accuracy during normal movement and on whether a garment still works after many washes.

What stands in the way

  • Washing damages conductive coatings. In a 2024 study of silver-coated conductive knitted fabric, surface resistance rose by 276 per cent after a neutral detergent wash in Table 4, although the Conclusions give 270 per cent. The paper's text also gives inconsistent wash counts, so no cycle count is cited here.
  • Garment electrodes are not waterproof. The review says this causes frequent interruptions to monitoring when garments need maintenance. The 90-day vest study also needed about one hour of charging each day.
  • There is no agreed method for testing the validity of wearable heart monitors, which makes studies hard to compare.
  • Smart clothing can depend on companion apps. Google ended support for the Jacquard app on 24 April 2023. A news report says existing Jacquard jackets stop working once the app is unavailable, and Levi's has sold Jacquard-enabled Trucker jackets.
  • The sources read do not show routine clinical use or reimbursement for garment monitors.

Signals to watch

  • A washing test protocol with set cycle counts and resistance limits that several research groups use.
  • Randomised trials of garment monitoring against standard care, reporting clinical outcomes.
  • Results from the Arctic field trial of MIT's fibre computers, which the article described as planned.
  • Manufacturers stating wash-cycle counts, battery life and accuracy in their product pages.
  • Accuracy results for ventricular and other serious rhythm problems in garment monitors.
  • Companion-app and cloud support for garments, which decides whether a product keeps working after its launch.

Sources

  1. company announcement
    FDA 510(k) Clearance
    Nanowear, Inc., 11 Nov 2020.
  2. government report
    510(k) Premarket Notification K212160: SimpleSENSE Platform
    U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 22 Sept 2021.
  3. company announcement
    Levi's Trucker Jacket with Jacquard by Google Gets High-Tech Update
    Levi Strauss & Co, 1 Oct 2019.
  4. news
    Jacquard: Google shutting down smart fabric app in April
    9to5Google, 28 Mar 2023.
  5. company announcement
    Hexoskin Smart Shirt - Men's
    Hexoskin, 2026.
  6. review article
    Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve: Smart Textile ECG Wearables for Comfort, Integration, Signal Quality and Continuous Monitoring in Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
    Alexandra E. Avanu, Gianina Dodi. Sensors (MDPI), 23 Jan 2025.
  7. peer reviewed paper
    Optimizing washing conditions for smart fabrics: a comprehensive study
    Suhyun Lee, Sohyun Park. RSC Advances, 23 Dec 2024.
  8. peer reviewed paper
    Investigating the Impact of Washing Cycles on Silver-Plated Textile Electrodes: A Complete Study
    Valentin Gaubert, Hayriye Gidik, Nicolas Bodart et al.. Sensors (MDPI), 20 Mar 2020.
  9. university press release
    Fiber computer allows apparel to run apps and 'understand' the wearer
    Adam Zewe. MIT News, 26 Feb 2025.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.