Novel Vital Signs Monitor Uses Ultra Wide Band Wireless Network

An innovative device monitors heart and respiration rates, bed occupancy and movement, without using electrodes, wires, or other attachments that cause bruising, skin injury, or discomfort.

The Preventa is the first medical device to harness the potential of ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication--an emerging standard and formerly a classified military technology--to create a wireless vital signs monitor. The Preventa monitors heart and respiration rates, bed occupancy, and movement on a continuous, real-time, remote basis, "watching” patients 100% of the time from a monitoring station down the hall or 4,000 kilometers away. Caregivers gain a disease management tool that can help reduce complications associated with common chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and sleep apnea, optimize scarce human resources, and reduce hospital admissions and emergency room (ER) visits. The system also alerts caregivers when a patient requires an assisted relocation to help prevent bed sores. Using additional proprietary components, Preventa tracks roaming physical assets and protects wandering at-risk patients by locking exit doors or elevators automatically. The Preventa system is a product of Sensiotec (Atlanta, GA, USA).

"We're excited by the opportunity with Preventa to make a difference in people's lives through improved disease management while also addressing society's need to help contain runaway healthcare costs,” said Robert Arkin, CEO of Sensiotec.

UWB is a radio technology that can be used at very low energy levels for short-range high-bandwidth communications by using a large portion of the radio spectrum, utilizing pulse coded information with sharp carrier pulses at a bunch of center frequencies. UWB communications transmit in a way that does not interfere with other more traditional "narrow band” and continuous carrier wave uses in the same frequency band. UWB has traditional applications in noncooperative radar imaging, but other more recent applications target sensor data collection, precision locating, and tracking applications.

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