Now, have you heard about the hospital you can wear?
Dr Saleyha Ahsan
Dr Saleyha Ahsan “As an A&E doctor in a Health Service hospital I know first-hand just how important it is to monitor changes to patient’s pulse, temperature, blood pressure and heart-rate.
It’s an essential early-warning system that gives a clear indication if there are any potential problems, and it saves lives. In a hospital it’s carried out by using expensive equipment and a highly-trained clinical staff.
Dr Chris Toumazou
But, what if hospital-standard monitoring could be taken into the home? Chris Toumazou is the inventor of an ingenious device that might make this possible.”
Chris Toumazou “Within this thing that looks like a Band-Aid or a plaster, I’ve got some very sophisticated micro-electronics This is a microchip something like you would find in your mobile phone or in a computer. What it does, is stick on your chest in an unobtrusive way and it measures your heart-rate, your respiration-rate, and your temperature but to medical grade now.”
Dr Saleyha Ahsan “Chris had a very personal reasons for inventing the device. In 2002 his nine-year-old son, Marcus, developed sudden kidney failure. After he left hospital, his parents had to provide the constant medical attention he needed at home.”
The Hospital You Can Wear
Dr Chris Toumazou “The biggest issue for us was the paranoia of having to take his vital signs. We knew that very few hours we would have to measure his blood-pressure, his temperature, his heart-rate, his weight.”
Dr Saleyha Ahsan “Chris took matters into his own hands. As an award-winning electrical engineer, he was an expert in dealing with tiny micro-chips and complex algorithms. And he decided to apply those skills to his son’s health.”
Dr Chris Toumazou “I realised that some of the algorithms, some of the mathematics I’m trying to create, models the biology that I’m trying to measure. But if I’m using the same algorithm to measure heart-rate - Wow, I’ve taken it from one discipline to another discipline and that was really it. This is exactly what I need for Marcus.”
Dr Saleyha Ahsan “Chris’s expertise allowed him to gather a team of experts together to create the wireless monitoring system in the plaster. The plaster is now undergoing medical trials in a hospital setting. Professor David Jayne is leading the first clinical trial and the early signs are encouraging.”
Professor David Jayne “We’ve picked up episodes where the patient had begun to become unwell, that we otherwise wouldn’t have done, with the intermittent tests.”
Pauline Barron is one of 75 patients taking part in the trial. The plaster wirelessly sends round-the-clock information of Pauline’s vital signs to a central database in the hospital and even to hand-held devices.
Pauline Barron “The thing is, with this trial, it’s not invasive. You get so fed up with people trying to get blood, everything, every hour, coming and taking your temperature through the night. But with this, if you’re alright, they just leave you alone.”
Dr Saleyha Ahsan “The trial is due to finish in a year’s time. If successful, the device could be used in other hospitals and for homecare. And with over a million chronic patients being treated at home, this clever device could change lives all over the country.”
CREDITS
All of the above information came from the BBC ‘One Show’ broadcast on 15th Feb 2016.
