Positioning System Tracks ED Patients

An ultrasound indoor positioning system (IPS) was recently installed at a Boston (MA, USA) hospital as part of the SMART (Scalable Medical Alert and Response Technology) patient tracking and monitoring project.

Using the Sonitor IPS system, developed by Sonitor Technologies, Inc. (Hopewell Junction, New York, NY, USA), selected patients in the emergency department (ED) waiting area will be tracked and located by room in real-time.

The emergency department of Brigham and Women's Hospital was designated as the testing site for the initial deployment, refinement, and evaluation of the SMART system because of its high patient volume and turnaround times. The SMART project, which is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA) is a collaborative effort by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which are all based in Boston (MA, USA).

Sonitor wireless detectors are installed throughout the emergency department patient waiting areas--waiting area, lobby, and restrooms. Upon registration, patients are given a "Tag” that monitors, tracks, and locates their position in real-time. This Tag is linked to a patient's digital file, which contains the vital signs of the patient while in the waiting area.

The motion-activated Tag transmits its unique identification signal using ultrasound waves as the patient moves throughout the emergency waiting area. Detectors, using Sonitor's patented Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms, transmit signals in digital format via the existing wireless LAN to a central computer unit that stores the information about the Tag's location and the time of the receipt of the Tag signal in a software program written by collaborating researchers from MIT. These data enable emergency room staff to retrieve a Tag's position and/or movement and determine precisely by room where the patient with that specific Tag is located.

"We are delighted that our ultrasound indoor positioning system [IPS] was selected for such a prestigious research project,” said Terry Aasen, president and CEO, Sonitor Technologies. "Ultrasound signals by nature confine themselves to the room where they originate; therefore, our IPS system makes room identification and accuracy virtually fail-proof.”



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