Wrist Based Wireless Vital Monitoring System for Continuous Assessment of Pre-term Neonates in NICU Environment

Abstract

Continuous vital monitoring at neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)is inevitable to know the risk status of the pre-term neonates being admitted. Though various vital monitoring system are existing, there is still a huge demand towards meetings the requirements for resource constrained settings. This study suggests development of wrist based designed with medical grade plastic enclosure and an ankle based fabricated using medical grade textile and Velcro strap wireless vital monitoring system for continuous assessment of preterm neonates that can measure SPO2, heartrate and temperature. Two variant of prototype one for ankle band and another wrist based have been developed and its performance were compared with the standard portable wire-based patient monitoring system. The prototypes were tested with 123 preterm neonates over a period of 10 months after due ethical clearance. It was observed that the developed prototypes yield comparable to that of clinical standard system in terms of vital parameters and the designed prototype needs to be validated with neonates before introduction to the more clinical routine for assessment.