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A ‘Mood Sweater’ which interprets the wearer’s emotions via coloured LED lights embedded in the fabric is being showcased as part of the AXA PPP Health Tech & You Forum at London’s Design Museum, in what is described as a celebration of innovative, personal health technology.

The GER Mood Sweater from San Francisco-based Sensoree, reads the wearer’s emotion via a soft sensor design called the Galvanic Extimacy Responder. Sensors are placed on the hands, which reads and interprets excitement levels, translating these into a specific coloured light which tells the wearer and others how they are feeling.

The GER Mood Sweater glows red to show when the wearer feels nervous or in love, and turns blue for calm, purple for excited, and yellow for bliss. This example of innovative wearable technology will open the AXA PPP Health Tech & You Forum.

The AXA PPP Health Tech & You campaign is a joint initiative of AXA PPP Healthcare, 2020Health and the Design Museum, in an attempt to put the health technology revolution into a wider context for the benefit of patients and consumers: to look at how it can change lives and society, from the detail of wearable health technology to the treatment of long-term conditions.

Kristin Neidlinger, SENSOREE founder, comments, “We are delighted to showcase the GER Mood Sweater at the forward-thinking Health Tech & You Forum. Personal technology is positively impacting many aspects of our lives, and with the GER Mood Sweater wearable technology, we are creating sensitive technology that is intuitive, responsive and illuminates the senses.”

This concept holds exciting promise for the future, as wearable clothing could be adapted for the personal healthcare arena. For those who struggle to communicate their emotional state – in Alzheimer’s disease for instance – a person may easily become aggressive and agitated, often without warning and for no apparent reason, wearable technology, like the Mood Sweater, could be the first step in helping families and carers to better anticipate and understand the moods of people, so they can better support and care for them.

Julia Manning, chief executive of 2020health said, “This jumper might look like just a novel fashion item, but we can see this sort of technology being helpful to people with autism, mental illness and those who can’t speak. It is an exciting tool to aid communication which for some people will be life-changing.”

James Freeston, marketing director, AXA PPP healthcare, adds, “Nothing could be more personal than your own health. We and our Health Tech & You partners believe personal health technology is the new age, giving more control to consumers to live healthier and more active lives. Through this initiative, we want to inspire, inform, celebrate and award innovators in this important area, which impacts us all today and which will be a growing feature of our future.”

Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, states: “This joint initiative of AXA PPP healthcare, 2020health and the Design Museum is an attempt to put the health technology revolution into a wider context: to look at how it can change lives and society, from the detail of wearable health technology to the treatment of chronic conditions. It will raise questions, and look for the best of new design and innovation in the personal healthcare sector. Until now healthcare has been treated as a specialist concern, controlled by manufacturers, researchers, and the medical industry. It is now on the edge of becoming a matter of individual choice. The digital revolution has transformed how we understand the world, now it can do the same for how we see health.”

The AXA PPP Health Tech & You Forum provides an opportunity to hear from leaders in far-ranging fields where personal health technology has, or will have, an important role to play. George Freeman MP, Life Sciences Minister, will give a key note speech on how we are using newer technologies in medicine.

Tim Kelsey, national director for Patients and Information, NHS England, will also give a presentation on the challenge of cultural change amongst the public, professionals and policy makers, in order to get the most out of new technologies.

Furthermore, the Forum marks the opening of the initiative’s Awards programme. The following six Award Categories have been designed to celebrate the different aspects of health technology:

• Keep Me Healthy
• Manage My Condition
• Signs & Symptoms
• Most Innovative Provider
• Best R&D Product
• Fertility, Pregnancy, Birth, Early Years

Entries are now open, and can be submitted via an online application form on the initiative’s website: www.HealthTechandYou.com

Award winners will be announced and celebrated in a dedicated exhibition which will launch at the Design Museum in March 2015. This showcase will bring together important healthcare innovations from around the world, and present them in an engaging and accessible way to give everyone an insight into this rapidly evolving field.