WEARABLE PHYSIOLOGICAL MONITORING IN TACTICAL EMERGENCY CARE: A NARRATIVE REVIEW OF ELECTRO-QUASISTATIC HUMAN BODY COMMUNICATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CARE DELIVERY

Jan Potoniec; Weronika Kępa; Aleksandra Papuga; Magdalena Grzymek; Aleksandra Pawłucka; Katarzyna Pawłucka; Justyna Bury; Katarzyna Kraska; Aneta Sobek; Martyna Więcławek; Joanna  Kadłuczka; Makary Hejduk

doi:10.31435/ijitss.3(51).2026.6227

Authors

Jan Potoniec Gabriel Narutowicz Municipal Specialist Hospital in Krakow, Krakow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5282-7833
Weronika Kępa Independent Researcher, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8378-9681
Aleksandra Papuga Independent Public Health Care Facility in Myślenice, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6851-7102
Magdalena Grzymek The University Hospital in Cracow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4337-0261
Aleksandra Pawłucka St. John Grande Hospital of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, Cracow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6765-9314
Katarzyna Pawłucka Jagiellonian University Medical College, Cracow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4273-6599
Justyna Bury Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4778-2375
Katarzyna Kraska Medical Center in Łańcut Sp. z o.o., Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0464-6826
Aneta Sobek Medical Center in Łańcut Sp. z o.o., Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6759-5419
Martyna Więcławek The University Hospital in Cracow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7956-9962
Joanna Kadłuczka Ludwik Rydygier Specialist Hospital in Cracow, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9347-0767
Makary Hejduk Independent Public Health Care Facility in Myślenice, Poland https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7579-4471

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31435/ijitss.3(51).2026.6227

Keywords:

Wearable Health Technology, Digital Health, Population Health, Combat Casualty Care, Point-of-Injury Triage, Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication

Abstract

Most combat deaths occur before the casualty reaches a medical facility. A substantial proportion is caused by haemorrhage from sites beyond the reach of self-applied interventions, making rapid triage decisive. Continuous physiological monitoring may accelerate it. Military personnel are a distinct occupational group, and advances in their point-of-injury monitoring carry direct public-health relevance. Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are a widely proposed approach for battlefield monitoring. However, they rely on active radiofrequency (RF) emission, producing an electromagnetic signature detectable by adversarial signals-intelligence systems. This places the clinical need to monitor in direct conflict with the operational need to remain undetected. This narrative review examines whether Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication (EQS-HBC), commercialised as Wi-R, resolves that conflict. Synthesising peer-reviewed literature, the review finds that EQS-HBC confines signal energy to the body’s near field, enabling a continuous physiological record to be captured on-body and retrieved by touch without detectable RF emission. Because EQS-HBC does not radiate and operates below 1 MHz, conventional RF jamming cannot target it directly - though susceptibility to other forms of interference remains, and neither has been tested under real operational conditions. These advantages carry a clinical cost: the loss of remote, pre-contact triage awareness. Furthermore, the evidence base rests entirely on laboratory studies, and no peer-reviewed field trials exist in military medical settings. Military medicine has long been a source of innovation for civilian healthcare. Whether EQS-HBC follows that path remains to be seen - for now it is a promising platform awaiting field validation.

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