Professor Rod McClure with inTechnology's Mark Winter
Brisbane-based inTechnology has partnered with US-based wireless patient monitoring provider Caretaker Medical.
Caretaker Medical produces wearable devices that measure continuous non-invasive beat-by-beat blood pressure (“CNIBP”), ECG-accurate heart rate, and respiration rate, as well as blood volume (for hemorrhage detection), arterial stiffness, and other haemodynamic parameters.
According to InTechnology, the technology is behind Australia's first 'virtual hospital’, and will be used to monitor COVID-19 patients in their homes.
The Australian virtual hospital program has been the brainchild of Professor Rod McClure, Dean of Medicine at the University of New England, and public health expert. Professor McClure spent several years as a director at the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and has worked with similar virtual hospitals in America.
McClure had been refining his virtual hospital idea for years as a way of providing better healthcare to regional areas, and now with the global COVID-19 pandemic, the project is being rolled out with full support of the University of New England.
“The Caretaker devices will be used to monitor patients in their homes who have moderate symptoms of the virus, and will continuously track their vital signs, including heart rate, temperature, oxygen saturation, beat-by-beat blood pressure and breathing,” McClure, said.
“A team of doctors, supported by artificial intelligence technology, will continuously monitor their status, and if their conditions worsen, we will bring them into the hospital for emergency care.”
Caretaker Medical president and CEO Jeff Pompeo said it will be able to reduce surge capacity, and protect clinicians and medical staff by allowing them to remain safely distanced from COVID-19 patients, while continuously observing vital signs.
“Beat by beat blood pressure, respiration rate and other vitals are early indications of patient deterioration, and the Caretaker device triggers early intervention that saves lives. Caretaker brings “ICU Quality” patient data to all points of care viewable from anywhere in the world without restricting patient mobility,” Pompeo said.
More virtual hospitals are expected to be rolled out across Australia, indicating a clear need to find safe ways to keep non critically ill patients out of hospital and in the comfort of their own home, inTechnology said.
“It’s a great privilege to be representing a vendor that not only provides world class technology, they are also at the forefront of the battle against this horrible disease that has affected so many across the world,” InTechnology Distribution CEO Mark Winter said.
Recently, Forrester principal analyst Jay McBain pointed out the channel’s fortune’s for this year now heavily depend on measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 taken by the United States’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
