A Novel Vital Sign Monitor Which Can Save Lives - Proceedings of All India Seminar on Biomedical Engineering 2012 (AISOBE-2012) - page 46

A Novel Vital Sign Monitor Which Can
Save Lives

Parimal Swamy

Abstract Few simple and easy to obtain physiological signs can predict the
deteriorating status of pre-hospital and hospitalized patients. These signs together
(after computation) generate a score known as Early Warning Score (EWS). Early
Warning Score recognizes deteriorating status of patients objectively and quickly.
Early recognition of deteriorating status in patients can save lives and prevent
morbidity. But many studies have shown that though it is theoretically simple to
compute EWS it is difficult to implement both at hospital and community levels.
This is mainly due to multiple factors affecting the proper collection and analysis
of clinical data (vital signs). We present the concept of a novel vital sign monitor
which not only collects the clinical data but analyzes the data in such a manner that
hospital staff can recognize patients at risk of deterioration and prevent unneces-
sary mortality and morbidity.

Keywords Early Warning Score Clinical Data Hospital Mortality Vital Sign
Monitor

Introduction

Failure to recognize deteriorating status in hospitalized patients is common. This
leads to unexpected deaths and unplanned ICU transfers which are associated with
increased cost of treatment, dissatisfaction of clients (patients or relatives), and

P. Swamy ( )

Jabalpur Hospital & Research Centre, Apollo Centre for Asthma & Diabetes Care,
Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India
e-mail: [e-mail]

&