Wearable Patch Helps Individuals Manage Stress

VivaLNK, a provider of connected healthcare solutions, has created Vital Scout, a reusable, wearable patch that continuously monitors stress and recovery levels. The patch is designed to be worn 24 hours a day over two to three days at a time. Vital Scout then provides an overall view of stress and recovery levels by analyzing the user’s heart rhythm throughout walking and sleeping hours.

Vital Scout uses medical grade electrocardiography (ECG) sensors and heart rate variability (HRV) algorithms to measure the body’s response to the physiological impacts of daily activities. The information collected provides individuals with personalized data on how they are reacting to stress triggers.

The patch is about the size of a Band-Aid, and can be worn on the chest under clothing, which helps provide a high fidelity signal for determining HRV.

"In order to get a comprehensive view of stress and recovery levels, contributing factors need to be accounted for throughout the entire day, under varying conditions," said Jiang Li, CEO of VivaLNK. "Taking occasional snapshots or select timeframes to measure stress levels can be misleading, but having a way to continuously track levels can finally help people better understand their body's reaction to stress."Additionally, in a survey of 500 consumers, individuals ranked their top daily stressors as social media, social commitments, health and fitness, societal expectations, maintaining relationships, and work/life balance. People in the 34 to 45 age range were the most stressed age group, but surprisingly, the younger and senior populations were most affected by the stress of social media.

All of the groups picked exercise as their main stress reliever, but females said their second choice was shopping, and for males, their second choice was alcohol. The younger generations were more likely to choose therapy and/or traveling.

This provided interesting information that simple, everyday tasks are causing stress to individuals in their day-to-day lives; this includes using social media or sitting in traffic. VivaLNK hopes to provide people with more information about what triggers their stress, and help individuals mitigate the consequences of ongoing stress.