As patients in the wards of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, and Civil Hospital, Ahmedabad, lie on their hospital beds, they are being silently monitored by doctors working remotely from their homes, the other room, or from kilometres away. Silently monitored, but not passively! For in case of a sudden deterioration in a patient’s condition relating to cardiac or respiratory emergencies, known as ‘code blue’ in medical terms, the doctor is notified immediately for timely action. The monitoring is part of a pilot project that began this January.
These hospitals have wireless devices placed on the patient’s bedsides that record the breathing patterns, pulse rate and movements of patients continuously and without any physical contact. These devices, made by Sleepiz AG, a Zurich-based start-up, leverage cardio-respiratory insights for better healthcare. Despite years of med-tech evolution, respiration measurement continues to remain manual.
A nurse visits the patient and physically checks their vitals. Dr. Soumya Dash, the co-founder and CEO of Sleepiz, explains, “This is a wireless technology where remote and real-time processes provide continuous and reliable health care data. This medical-grade data is analysed and shared with practitioners, enabling them to save lives by early intervention as well as reducing the burden on hospitals, especially during a time like Covid. This is made possible at hospitals by easy and affordable conversion of a general ward/hospital bed into a Stepdown ICU for in-ward remote monitoring of patients. It can be duplicated at home.”
The device measures movements originating from heart contractions, breathing patterns, and body motions with medical-grade accuracy, using wireless millimetre wave technology, sensor fusion and artificial intelligence to monitor and record the key vitals. “The Sleepiz CARE (Cardiorespiratory Evaluators) team collects, and evaluates data 24x7. This can be accessed at a control centre in the hospital, or directly by the physician via his web-app, informs Ankit Anand, VP Software Engineering, Cloud Solutions, at Sleepiz.
When the CARE team notices anything unusual, they flag it to the doctor. While the current focus is on cardio-pulmonary departments, the devices can be used by the neurology, anaesthesiology, and critical care departments. Sleepiz is available on a subscription model. In less than Rs 500 per day, a patient can
get continuous care.
How it works
✥Using radar signals, the device measures breathing, pulse rate, and movement.
✥The hardware comprises a millimeter-wave doppler radar, which measures upper body movement without contact, detecting body movements as small as 0.2 mm.
✥The raw data is transferred to their servers using Long Term Evolution. The device is battery-powered, can be charged, and mounted on a stand for long-term use. With a press of a button, patients can record multiple nights of sleep at home, while physicians simultaneously receive their results in their clinics or mobile phones.
✥The software uses digital signal processing to transform raw radar signals into parameters such as breathing, pulse rate, and movement.