[Vision2020] A Smaller, Smarter Vital Signs Monitor

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of the Army Times.

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A smaller, smarter vital-signs monitor 

A wireless monitor that tracks a patient’s vital signs — and is smart enough to determine whether a patient is deteriorating — could soon be in the hands of medics on the battlefield.

The Wireless Vital Signs Monitor could reach medics on the front lines in as little as 18 months, and having this added capability is critical, especially in a place such as Afghanistan, said Jose Salinas, research task area program manager for combat critical care engineering at the Army Institute of Surgical Research.

“In Afghanistan, you have 10-hour evacuation times in some cases, so you need to really push technology to mitigate the extended evacuation times,” he said.

Here are five things you need to know about the device:

1Smaller and lighter. Combat medics now carry a basic finger pulse oximeter, which reads only heart rate and blood oxygen levels, Sali nas said.
 
2Push one button. The WVSM, made by Athena GTX, weighs about 1 pound and is small enough to strap onto a patient’s arm. It’s also easy to operate, with the push of one button, and it has a wireless receiver that can be used by helicopter crews or transmitted to a centralized display in an emergency room. 

The WVSM also can talk to lap tops, Android smartphones and iPhones, and Salinas and his team are working on a version for the iPad, as well.

3Trouble alert. Today’s standard monitors are “dumb” boxes, Salinas said, meaning they display only the data transmitted from the patient. 

“The Army wanted to develop some thing better,” he said. “We wanted to give the power to the monitor so it is not just a data display but a decision support tool for the medics.” Salinas and his team developed an algorithm called the Artificial Neural Network.

“It has an artificial intelligence engine in it that analyzes all the data coming from the patient and uses that data to predict if that patient is decompensating and is in trouble and alerts the physician when that patient will require a lifesaving intervention,” Salinas said.

4A team effort. The monitor received approval last year from the Food and Drug Administration. It is the product of collaboration among the Army, the Navy, the state of Texas, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston and the National Trauma Institute.

5When medics will get it. The WVSM is undergoing a clinical trial at Memorial Hermann, and the trial is expected to conclude at the end of 2012. 

Once the trial is completed and the WVSM is validated, the goal is to field it to combat medics as quickly as possible, Salinas said. 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown
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