IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed a technology that might prove to be the life savior for many patients called “AmbuSens”.
This will the doctors to keep track of the patient health in the ambulance. They can also suggest the nurse presents in the ambulance to take certain action if the condition of the patient becomes critical.
Why this technology?
There are many incidents where patients die simply because the ambulance was unable to reach the hospital in time. It might be because of many reasons like the traffic jam or some mechanical problem in the ambulance.
Also, it’s impossible for the doctors to travel to all places in an ambulance. So, generally, there is some nurse present in the ambulance to take care of the patient. But, that nurse might not be qualified enough to deal with all kind of situations.
Suppose the condition of the patient starts becoming critical in the middle of the journey. In that moment, an advice or guidance from the expert might prove to be the life savior for that patient.
AmbuSens
The device developed by the researchers is known as “AmbuSens”. This technology has been developed in the computer science and engineering lab at IIT Kharagpur.
AmbuSens is capable of monitoring various parameter wireless. These parameters include ECG, Heart rate, temperature, blood pressure. The biggest thing about this technology is that it keeps all the data confidential. This technology uses the analytic and computing power of cloud computing.
There are other technologies like telemedicine but these have several limitations. In these technologies, doctors can see the patient but cannot monitor their health condition in real time. This major limitation is solved by the AmbuSens.
AmbuSens comes with the easy to use the web interface for doctors and paramedics. This interface has several data visualization tools like real-time ECG graph rendering. This web interface can be accessed from any device connected to the internet.
According to the Prof. Sudip Misra, principal investigator of developing this system, “At present, there is no technology available that can help the doctors to monitor the patient remotely in the ambulance. This technology will prove to be the life savior for many patients.
With the implementation of this technology, we will not lose the life because of the doctor not able to monitor the patient in the ambulance.”
How does this technology work?
AmbuSens currently uses cellular and wireless technology and cloud computing to achieve the real-time monitoring process. If the system is developed further, it could also work on irregular internet connection. The patient in the ambulance will be fitted with wireless sensors.
These sensors will continuously collect the data and will send that data to the hospital. In the remote hospital, doctors will use the laptop to monitor all the data in real time.
Sudip Mishra said, “We have conducted the trials of this technology at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Bhubaneshwar. The trails were conducted on the patient admitted to ICU, patient coming for the normal health check-up. We have also conducted the trails on the patient that are going for the cardiac problem treatment.”
“The trails were conducted in the age group of 10-70 years. The patient was monitored for more than 20 minutes” he added in the report.
According to him, the technology worked very well in all the cases.
What’s next?
The next thing for the research team is to improve this technology so that it could also work with the irregular internet connection. The speed of the internet connection will also play crucial role in the application of this technology.
Surely, if they are able to implement this technology in real life, then many lives could be saved.
Source: techstory.in
