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TECHNOLOGY IN CARE


The funding will allow the Oxecam technology to be tested with patients who are in the uncertain period, two to five days after surgery, when accurate monitoring is essential. Oxehealth’s CEO, Jonathan Chevallier, said: “We believe that cameras will revolutionise the future of health monitoring, providing a technology which can unobtrusively monitor patients for long periods of time in a range of different environments.


“Funding for this project will enable us to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology in a demanding clinical environment and provide a


strong platform for extending its use into other related healthcare uses.”


It is predicted that the NHS will have a deficit of 47,500 nurses by 2016 – shortages that are mirrored internationally. With insufficient numbers of health support staff presenting a serious obstacle to healthcare providers, and even compromising the safety of patients, Oxehealth’s technology comes at a crucial time for the sector and could prove invaluable in freeing up nurse hours.


Oxehealth’s application seeks to support nurses by taking over the


burden of time-consuming vital signs checks, allowing for more time to be spent on other important tasks.


Research currently shows that it takes a median of 7 minutes to spot check a patient’s vital signs, sometimes adding up to over an hour of each nurse’s shift – a significant amount of workforce hours that could be saved with the Oxecam.


Oxehealth believes current methods are dated and restrictive, with too many opportunities for inaccurate record taking and cross- contamination. The company’s intention is to offer a low-cost, camera-based system, which will provide extended tracking of a patient’s vital signs.


The Oxecam has been designed to reduce the amount of time that nurses spend on the arduous task of patient checks, while its non-contact application will simultaneously reduce opportunities for cross-infection. The technology also provides additional benefits to post-operative patients as the remote Oxecam technology allows free and unimpeded mobility during the recovery period.


If successful, the project will be followed by steps to develop a finished version of the “five vital sign” Oxecam that will improve the care, safety and wellbeing of patients. It will also help to save money by simplifying the process of patient safety checks.


How it works Oxecam is a set of algorithms which analyses data from video cameras to produce estimates of vital signs and other parameters.


In this new application, the algorithms will monitor five vital signs: the patient’s breathing and heart rate will be tracked to detect any significant variations; temperature will be monitored, particularly to help identify signs


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of sepsis; blood oxygenation will be tracked to identify any major de- saturations; and blood pressure to identify any hypotensive episodes.


The technology also works in the dark, using invisible infra-red illumination, so patients can sleep undisturbed. Video data is processed inside the camera unit, with the vital signs then transmitted to electronic patient record systems. If there is an issue, an alarm is generated to staff as appropriate.


The Oxecam technology has applications outside the clinical realm too, and major opportunities exist to diversify its reach into industries as wide ranging as automotive, security and retail. The contactless technology offers a simple and unobtrusive means of monitoring personal vital signs statistics, which the company hopes will see it extended to many other applications in the future.


www.oxehealth.com


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