Source: DTUA team from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is turning a wireless monitoring device already in development into a tool for tracking the health of coronavirus patients.

The Wireless Assessment of Respiratory and Circulatory Distress (WARD) monitoring system enables healthcare professionals to monitor coronavirus patients remotely amid a shortage of protective medical equipment and hospital beds, thereby preventing the spread of the virus.

The monitoring system is comprised of sensors worn by patients that continuously measure patients’ blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiration and heart rate. That data is wirelessly communicated to a central computer where artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms analyze and interpret the data, notifying healthcare professionals if there is a decline in the patient’s condition.

For now, the team is preparing to trial the monitoring system in intensive care units, but believes it could eventually be used to monitor the health of those at home, limiting the patient’s contact with others in the hospital and with healthcare professionals until the patient requires other medical interventions.

The DTU team envisions that in the future, the system might identify unseen connections and patterns in the development of diseases. But for now, the system may serve to keep healthcare professionals from direct contact with infected patients without the benefit of protective masks and gloves and to keep hospital beds, which are also in short supply, occupied only by those who need it most.