Mar. 10, 2026
Two adults wearing protective gowns and gloves stand beside a hospital crib, using a tablet device while examining an infant lying on the mattress as medical equipment and monitors surround the crib.

Georgia Tech’s flexible, sensor‑embedded fabric — designed to detect pressure injury risk and alert care teams when a patient needs repositioning — is now being tested on cribs in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Arthur M. Blank Hospital.

Hospital stays can be long and arduous; they can also cause serious complications. When a person lies in one position too long and begins to sweat, painful sores called pressure injuries (PIs) can form on the body, leading to infection or even death. A patient can develop a PI in a few days — or even a few hours. And once present, a PI is hard to treat. To address this issue, researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new, flexible, sensor-filled fabric to monitor areas at risk of PIs and alert hospital staff when a patient needs to be turned.

Read more about Georgia Tech’s research on preventing pressure injuries »