DHS Funds Pack Test Study
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is funding a project to gather detailed physiologic data on 500 wildland firefighters during their annual work capacity fitness test. The firefighters will wear a garment embedded with sensors beneath their protective gear to record their vital statistics and physiologic data in real time during the test.
Pack tests determine the physical fitness of wildland firefighters by requiring them to walk 3½ miles wearing a 45-pound pack in 45 minutes or less. In 2004, two firefighters died of heart attack during pack tests in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
According to VivoMetrics, the LifeShirt System is the first non-invasive, ambulatory monitoring system that continuously collects, records and analyzes a broad range of cardiopulmonary parameters. The garment is embedded with sensors that collect pulmonary, cardiac, posture and activity signals.
Data collected by integrated peripheral devices measure blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, EEG/EOG, periodic leg movement, temperature, end tidal CO
Researchers hope the data from the tests will provide a greater understanding of the physiologic changes firefighters undergo during the pack test and will lead to guidelines for the monitoring of physiologic responses to increase the safety in future pack tests, training scenarios and deployment in the field.
Wildland firefighters were being recruited in several regions around the country. The company plans to work with teams who have an interest in participating in the study and hopes to have the data collection finished by mid-summer.
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