High tech wearable devices that monitor patients’ vital signs and spot early indicators of deterioration are being trialled as part of an international project involving five European hospitals including UCLH.
The hospitals running the Nightingale project challenged industry to develop devices that continually track a range of measures including breathing rate, oxygen levels, and blood pressure – both in general wards and at home, wirelessly transmitting this information to a server where it is combined with other elements of the patient’s healthcare record to create individualised risk profiles.
Two of the devices being tested: the Emfit device (l) and the Checkpoint Cardio device (r)
Around 150 companies were whittled down to four. Initial testing was carried out last year in healthy volunteers to make sure the devices were comfortable, accurate and safe. The best two devices will now be trialled in UCH patients this summer.
UCLH Critical Care staff Dr David Brealey, John Welch and Petra Voegele lead the project at UCLH, which also involves UMC Utrecht, UZ Leuven, Karolinska University Hospital and Uniklinik Aachen. The project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.
In general, in wards across Europe vital signs are usually measured every 4-8 hours. However, patients can become acutely unwell and rapidly deteriorate between these measurements. The Nightingale solution aims to discretely and continually monitor the key signs, automatically escalating any deterioration to the appropriate caregiver. Linking this data with that held in Epic will allow for more detailed and personalised risk assessments, and will also free up nursing time and improve staff and patient confidence.
Petra Voegele, senior PERRT (Patient Emergency Response & Resuscitation Team) nurse, said: “We urgently need a device like this. Currently we cannot check on each individual patient as often as we would like, due to the number of patients we look after and the amount of time it takes to check all the signs we monitor “Importantly, we hope this technology will help individualise care by giving us personalised risk scores for patients on all the measures we look at. For one patient, a certain set of numbers may mean we need to escalate care immediately, while for another patient the same set of numbers may be less concerning. It depends on a patient’s unique circumstances.”
Dr David Brealey, the lead for critical care trials at UCH, added: “The additional ability to monitor patients from home could allow us to confidently discharge patients earlier, which has to be better for all.”
John Welch, critical care nurse consultant, pointed out that patients themselves could also input information that would enhance the accuracy of the systems, for example, reporting dizziness or pain.
Find out more about the Nightingale Project at www.nightingale-h2020.eu.
