Watch Like Device for At-Risk Patients

DigitalDame writes "At-risk patients will soon have a little help from a device worn on the wrist that can measure vital signs including pulse rate, cardiac rhythm (ECG or EKG), and blood oxygen levels. It can either store the data and transmit it to a medical center at a later time or, in the case of an emergency, transmit the information in real time using the built-in cellular phone while sending an alarm to a caregiver."

Too little sleep, too little caffee.

[Vo0k]

I read this as watch like device at risk from patents. I thought some asshole patented wearing anything other than handwatch around your wrist. Seemed damn likely.

Back to the subject: In Europe it should work. But in the US, with the cellular coverage you have there, in most cases it will just help confirming cause of death, because the base station will be just out of range. You guys NEED to do something with your cellular services. Coverage of whole country, just for cases like these is essential. In Europe, even in backwater countries of former eastern bloc, there's very few places "out of range" left and sometimes even in good coverage area new base stations are built, just to improve reliablity, quality, add redundancy in case of failure. In an average small town, field engineering options of your phone will detect 3-4 stations within usable range, 4 others with too weak signal to use. You can go by train and just watch switching the base stations. And the idea to install GPS in cellular phones to help locating them? Ridiculous! There are already services of "locate self", "locate friend" available, because by pinging 3 nearest stations and processing the distance readouts, the cell phone can be located with precision of some 20 meters. Now how useful would it be to locate the patient in emergency?

A very bad idea

[nanoakron]

As a trainee cardiothoracic surgeon, I see patients in both the Intensive Care Unit and in the High Dependency Unit at our hospital...and I can't tell you the number of times alarms go off needlessly for such things as minor ECG changes and decreasing blood oxygen saturations.

Causes for alarms going off:
Patient takes a deeper breath than normal
Patient moves
Patient strains on the toilet
Patient has a shower
Patient's sensor falls off
Patient's fingers get cold

And any other innumerable causes for spurious alarms.

So how do we know if a patient is really sick? Simple - look at them!

This is precisely what can't be done with one of these remote monitoring devices - I looked into setting up a remote ECG monitoring system myself about 5 years ago but I can guarantee no cardiologist will want to be woken at 3am for false alarms.

So either this device will cost one hell or a lot to run (may even be cheaper to book yourself a room in hospital for the rest of your life) or have the alarms so insensitive that a lot of people die before this fails.

-Nano.

Re:This didn't exist already? Dig the pricing.

[CornerScribe]

I'm not positive, but I think whether you have insurance (and the quality of insurance) can affect the prices of certain things.

For example, I think that people without insurance get charged more for prescriptions than those with insurance do (even taking into account the insurance payments). So, if I have insurance, the total cost of a particular drug might be $40, yet someone without insurance might pay more than that.

It seems terribly unfair (and is unfair, IMO), but big insurance companies can negotiate discounts that individuals can't get. I'm betting that something similar might be happening here as well.

Here's a link that give a few details. http://www.medicoverage.com/more/A35_0_1_0_M/ [medicoverage.com]

Re:WTH Similar Concept

[Anonymous Coward]

Your business skills had nothing to do with it. Had your device simply measured blood sugar levels continuously and accurately (sensitivity and specificity), a multitude of companies would have been knocking on your door with money in hand.

Just look, it took a company 10 years to get this one to the public... Just don't sweat, don't get cold, and don't rely on it. Oh ya, did I mention it causes irritation and needs 3 hours of prep time before it starts giving readings? And it's one of the best out there!
http://www.diabetesnet.com/diabetes_technology/glu cowatch.php [diabetesnet.com]

Re:Yes, but privacy?

[drmike0099]

The only thing doctors are required by law to report is information regarding abuse and violence in the home (domestic/spousal/child/elderly abuse). The rest already does require a warrant.

Re:Nice

[cluckshot]

This is the beginning of the export from control by the medical establishment of Pulse Oximetry. [medical-monitors.com] These devices have been for quite some time used in hospitals.

Now if we could get extracted from the clutches of the US-FDA the control over such devices expecially the optical devices used for Blood Sugar Monitoring which are made in the USA and cannot be sold here but are used world wide.... *Yes I am an RN*