COPD is a progressive chronic lung disease characterised by narrowed airways and/or an attack on the pulmonary bladders. COPD patients suffer from chronic coughing, give up mucus and are often short of breath and distressed. The number of COPD patients is still increasing, as well as the number of patients with a (very) severe form of COPD. The World Health Organisation expects COPD to be the world’s third cause of death by 2030. The Netherlands currently has 600,000 COPD patients and the cost of care is EUR 443 million per year. One of the main causes of shortness of breath in COPD patients is dynamic hyperinflation (DH). DH is characterised by excessively inflated lungs and occurs during exercise when the patient is repeatedly able to exhale less air as a result of the airway narrowing than he inhales. Patients with DH have difficulty breathing and therefore avoid exertion. A decrease in movement is strongly correlated to the well-being and mortality of the COPD patient. It is therefore important to detect and treat DH in good time. MedWear develops a tool (“Smart Care Shirt”) to establish DH in COPD patients. The tool consists of a biometric shirt that measures breathing patterns (e.g. breathing frequency and amount of air per breath) based on RIP technology (see H3) and algorithms to analyse the measurement data. The Smart Care Shirt is based on a biometric shirt for (top) athletes and is adapted in such a way that it can be worn by COPD patients, i.e. available in all (incl. very large) sizes and with a zipper. Athletes have enough of the measured breathing patterns, but in order to determine DH, the data must be processed and analysed using algorithms. MedWear has applied for a Dutch patent and an international patent on the analytical method. A beta version of an algorithm based on this patent has been developed and tested. It has been demonstrated that this prototype allows DH to be determined on the basis of the measured breathing patterns. In this project, MedWear, Relitech, Radboudumc and the UTwente are working on optimising the current prototype of the Smart Care Shirt. Radboudumc then conducts a clinical validation study to determine whether the system can measure DH reliably, reproducibly and with sufficient accuracy. Based on many conversations with pulmonary doctors, paramedical staff and representatives of pharmaceutical companies, it has become clear that MedWear has a unique proposition with the Smart Care Shirt. This testifies in particular that renowned private companies such as Boehringer-Ingelheim and AstraZeneca are willing to make a financial contribution to the development of the shirt. At the end of the project, MedWear can introduce the Smart Care Shirt as a tool for DH diagnostics on the clinical and paramedical market. Hospitals can use the Smart Care Shirt as an additional, patient-friendly and reliable diagnostic tool for measuring DH. The measurements of DH are still taking place on the basis of a complicated protocol in a laboratory setting. For physiotherapy practices and rehabilitation centers, the Smart Care Shirt will be a completely new tool that allows them to broaden the provision of care to COPD patients. With market introduction to the (para-)medical market, MedWear is also taking an important step towards market introduction of the Smart Care Shirt as an eHealth tool. The patient then wears the shirt at home during daily work or exercises while the breathing patterns are measured. The patient receives these data (graphically) presented on the tablet or Smartphone, and can upload them to the pulmonary doctor’s dashboard, which regularly receives an overview of the extent of DH and can treat it on a regular basis. The patient can determine DH at any time and in many cases also lift DH with breathing exercises. For this application, all technology has already been developed, including the measurement application, consisting of a user interface for the doctor, signal processing, data storage, and data processing.MedWear expects to be able to introduce the Smart Care Shirt on the clinical and paramedical market half a year after the end of the project. Two years later, market launch follows as an eHealth tool. Five years after market launch, MedWear expects to have generated a cumulative turnover of EUR 15 million and employs 11 employees.