The new generation of devices being introduced into the healthcare field is straight out of sci-fi movies. Currently there is a working medical tri-corder (from Star Trek) that reads vital signs such as body temperature. The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE was established to encourage inventors to come up with new wireless devices to monitor and diagnose health conditions by offering a $10 million prize.
While these new inventions undoubtedly will improve the inefficiencies of the healthcare industry, Sensiotec was the world's first company to pioneer the non-contact remote vital signs monitor, and it unveiled version 2.0 of its Virtual Medical Assistant (VMA) at the annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition this week.
The VMA is wireless, non-wearable system that measure heart rate, respiration rate, bed occupancy, and movement without any visible electrodes or leads to carry out the procedures.
The improvement in the new 2.0 includes propriety software and hardware improvements so the VMA can be integrated with the company's patented Bed Sensor Panel along with third-party applications used by healthcare facilities to introduce new products and services. To encourage further development and deploy this technology in every hospital bed, Sensiotec is accepting applications from health tech companies.
The partnership program has a ready started with VGBio, a predictive analytics provider. VGBio has integrated the 2.0 platform in its remote patient monitoring solution VitaLink. The first solution created along with the collaboration of the US Department of Veteran Affairs Center for Innovation was a remote patient monitoring platform to record data and build personalized physiology models for patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). This new solution is currently in two IRB approved clinical studies with the VA and University of Chicago Medical Center.
"Never before in medical history have we had the opportunity to computationally analyze so many different data points about a person's health. The integration capabilities of VMA's 2.0 platform provide an unprecedented chance to find important correlations. Sensiotec's partnership with VGBio to use VMA for COPD monitoring is a great example of technology enabled collaboration that will change healthcare for the better," explains Dr. Jiten Chhabra, research scientist with Georgia Tech's Interactive Media Technology Center.
The VMA uses Ultra-Wideband (“UWB”), a high frequency low power radar technology which was previously classified by the military. The UWB allows healthcare facilities to monitor patients while they are on their bed without ionizing radiation. It generates high temporal and spatial resolutions by penetrating solid objects and body tissue with ultra-low power specific absorption rates while accommodating established narrowband systems. Sensiotec solution sees inside the body by acquiring and processing patient data at the point of care through the transmission of nanosecond pulses, more than 20 million times weaker than a cell phone. It detects micro movements from the heart, lungs and torso, which are digitally separated, filtered and processed to generate critical heart, respiration and movement data.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
