Average emergency room wait times can top three hours in this country. What if doctors could monitor vital signs during the wait?
Tia Gao, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University and David Crawford, an undergraduate student at the University of Maryland, helped to develop a prototype device the size of an Altoid tin that could cost thousands of dollars less than existing vital sign monitors.
“As soon as they step into the hospital they can be given one of these monitors,” Gao said. “The ERs in America are so overcrowded that the average patient?s wait is over three hours before they see a doctor. A small condition can deteriorate into a fatal condition before anyone sees them. There?s not enough nurses to monitor these patients.”
The current machines ? about the size of a desktop computer ? can cost up to $10,000 and usually aren?t available in the waiting room.
If the prototype works, patient care could improve drastically, said Dr. Peter Pronovost, director of The Center for Innovations in Quality Patient Care at Johns Hopkins.
“If the price point comes down, it is cost-effective to use it with everybody,” Pronovost said. “And the size makes it much more convenient for patients so they don?t have this big cumbersome equipment hooked up to them.”
The device transmits vital sign information ? pulse, blood oxygen, blood pressure and temperature ? to a unit within 150 yards. A nurse or a doctor can monitor several patients on a computer and the system could alert if something goes wrong.
The prototype is not yet on the market, but Friday, the students plan to attend a venture forum in Santa Barbara, Calif., to seek backers.
“This certainly isn?t the end of the road for us,” Crawford said. “It?s one step along the way, but it is a very important one for us.”
