Bed Sensor Panel Monitors Vital Signs Remotely

An innovative remote vital signs monitor offers a noninvasive device with no electrodes or leads to monitor patient presence, motion, and vitals.

The Virtual Medical Assistant (VMA) 2.0 monitors heart and respiration rates, as well as patient movement, via a lightweight panel at the point of care (POC) that can be placed above, below, or next to a bed. Once in place, the VMA provides a constant feedback loop that can be sent out to nurses’ stations, tablets, pagers, smart phones, or any other remote device. The system, which does not require pressure pads, sensors, or cuffs, acquires data every two seconds and provides spot data and analyzing trends to discern whether a patient is experiencing deteriorating heart and respiratory readings, is in danger of falling, or requires pressure ulcer prevention management.


The VMA utilizes Ultra-Wideband (UWB) radar technology, a high frequency low power technology to acquire and process patient data through the transmission of nanosecond pulses, more than 20 million times weaker than a cell phone, that detect micro movements from the heart, lungs, and torso. The signals are digitally separated, filtered, and processed to generate critical heart, respiration, and movement data. UWB produces no ionizing radiation, generates high temporal and spatial resolutions, penetrates solid objects and body tissue, produces ultra-low power specific absorption rates, and accommodates established narrowband systems.

The hospital server architecture uses an application programming interface (API), based on standard web technologies, that allows developers to easily build new graphical user interfaces or create new interfaces with other types of software applications, so that multiple users can get the same patient data at the same time through any smart device they might be using. An additional advantage of the Web API is the ease with which an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system can extract patient data generated by VMA without the added complexity of an HL7 interface. The VMA is a product of Sensiotec (Atlanta, GA, USA).

“We continue to enhance our offering to increase the quality and lower the cost of patient monitoring,” said Robert Arkin, CEO and founder of Sensiotec. “The integration capabilities of VMA 2.0 positions us to expand into new markets, create new distribution channels, and engage innovative partners and customers.”

VGBio (Naperville, IL, USA), a predictive analytics provider, is the first company to implement VMA’s 2.0 platform into the VGBio’s VitaLink remote patient monitoring solution to record data and build personalized physiology models for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

“Never before in medical history have we had the opportunity to computationally analyze so many different data points about a person’s health. The integration capabilities of VMA’s 2.0 platform provide an unprecedented chance to find important correlations,” said Jiten Chhabra, PhD, a research scientist at the Georgia Tech (Atlanta, USA). “Sensiotec’s partnership with VGBio to use VMA for COPD monitoring is a great example of technology enabled collaboration that will change healthcare for the better.”

Related Links:
Sensiotec
VGBio
Georgia Tech