At all stages of life there are risks and questions concerning how our bodies are functioning. If there were a way to monitor these stages, would it bring about a healthier and more productive society? Dr. Coleman and his researchers at Neural Interaction Lab believe so. His vision is to use technology to not only allow the human to be more productive, but also to become more human.  Although health monitoring systems are already used in hospitals and medicals facilities, they are often large, rigid and confined to the hospital space. Dr. Coleman and his team have designed wearable, flexible electronics that bend and stretch with the skin. Dr. Coleman and his team are merging technology with health to enable more productive, functional lives.  Through multidisciplinary research, they are improving clinical outcomes across all stages of life: pregnancy, newborns, chronic diseases and aging.

• They have wed materials science with bio-electronics to develop an "electronic temporary tattoo" that can read vital signs unobtrusively.

•  By combining tools from applied mathematics and statistics, computer science, bioelectronics, and medicine, their innovations allow them to monitor and better manage health challenges from pregnancy to chronic disease management to aging.

• They are also innovating at developing fast, scalable analytics algorithms that can take human vitals, along with other contextual information, and transform them into a succinct and dynamic statistical snapshot of the status of humans as they interact in their environment. 

• By carefully developing unobtrusive applications to obtain a human's status, their technological innovations can analyze information and optimize resources in the background, and intervene when necessary.  

• In order to attain this vision, their engineers, clinicians and biologists must work together closely to develop interfaces between human and machine that are unobtrusive yet informative.

Most expectant mothers worry about their pregnancy and possible complications.  Dr. Coleman's research lessens that burden, creating the ability to monitor complicated pregnancies, improve neonatal care, and reduce time in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). They are seeking better ways to manage chronic disease and aid our aging population by creating new continuous health monitoring datasets, from which we will learn diseases' natural evolution and provide better treatments.  Additionally, their research has the potential to democratize the practice of medicine by allowing smartphones to automatically retrieve vital signs and seek clinical advice from physicians thousands of miles away.