Patient monitoring system using computer vision

  

Patient monitoring system

using

computer vision

     

1) What is patient monitoring system?

        Patient monitoring system or wireless health monitoring system involves monitoring of patients vitals remotely by means of devices that transfers patient data to remote locations wirelessly. Continuous monitoring of patient health is important during treatment.

 Patient monitors measure, record, distribute and display combinations of biometric values such as heart rate, SPO2, blood pressure, temperature and more. High-capability, multi-function monitors are typically used in hospitals and clinics to ensure a high-level of quality patient care.

        System health monitoring is a set of activities undertaken to maintain a system in operable condition and may be limited to an observation of current system states, with maintenance and repair being prompted by these observations.

        In short, we can define a patient monitoring system as any set of systems and/or process that enable healthcare providers to monitor a patient’s health.

A classic example of a patient monitoring system is an electrocardiography (“ECG”) machine that monitors the electrical activity of the heart.

 

                                                    

output of an ECG machine 

2) Why is Patient monitoring important?

 

         The aim of patient monitoring is to give warning of early or dangerous deterioration and to achieve this by obtaining an optimal compromise involving many design factors, clinical, engineering and economic.

        Patient Monitoring system has been one of the most important devices used in hospitals. It helps to provide a means for caregivers to regularly observe patients in multiple intensive care units from a single remote location. The system may provide an addition layer of care, which includes software tools that support analysis of patients’ values, vital signs, trends etc.

        In this system cameras are utilized together to help .in monitoring the activities of the patients. Already, technologies in video surveillance system and computer vision are widely acknowledged to make monitoring tasks easier and more effectively. The technologies can assist in gathering details of the activities and actions for better assessments. With the collaboration and discussion with the nurses, the integrated system will provide alarming features to draw attentions from the nurses for detecting falls, risky movements, and irregular actions of the patients. Furthermore, information of the monitored activities is recorded for further studies.

 

3) What are the components of a patient monitoring system?

       Every patient monitoring system is unique. An ECG is not constructed with the same pieces as a glucose monitor.

There is no regulation that states that every patient monitoring system must have a given number of PCBs, sensors, conductors, etc.

That’s why, we group the components of a patient monitoring system into three general categories: 

A.     The patient monitoring device,

B.   The capital equipment,

C.   The software.

 

A) The Patient Monitoring Device

        Though the term “patient monitoring device” is commonly used to refer to the entire patient monitoring system.

In general, the patient monitoring device typically contains a sensor for capturing important patient information (e.g., heart rate) and an interconnect solution (e.g., PCBs, connectors, wiring, etc.) that can transmit the information to the capital equipment.

Using a pulse oximeter as an example, the piece that clips to your finger and senses and transmits your pulse to the capital equipment is an example of the patient monitoring device component.

                            

Pulse oximeter on the thumb of a patient.

B) The Capital Equipment

Data collected by the patient monitoring device is useless if it can’t be accessed. This makes the capital equipment an essential component of a patient monitoring system.

As the patient monitoring device itself collects vital patient data, that data is then sent (sometimes wirelessly) to the capital equipment where it is processed, stored, and displayed. Most of the capital equipment used in patient monitoring utilize a complex interconnect system of connectors, PCBs, and wire harnesses as well as some type of screen/monitor where the data is shared in a useable format.

Some forms of patient monitoring capital equipment contain a computer with a processor and hard drive.

In essence, the capital equipment is the central point where data from the monitoring device is processed, stored, and output as useful information.

The computer screen that shows the readout of a patient’s ECG P-Wave is an example of the capital equipment used in a patient monitoring system.

                                     

ECG readout on the capital equipment computer screen.

C) The Software

Once patient data is communicated from the device to the capital equipment, it must be processed. Though the hardware that gathers the data is important, the software that makes the data useable is often overlooked in discussions regarding patient monitoring innovations.

The software, after all, is responsible for turning the ones-and-zeros into a format that healthcare providers can actually understand. The drivers, applications, and programs that process, store, and visually transform the data are integral parts of any patient monitoring system—a failure or delay within the software of a patient monitoring system can cause confusion and danger to the patient.

                                   

A healthcare provider preparing the computer for an operation.

 

 4) Patients Monitoring and Computer Vision.

The healthcare industry has already seen many benefits coming from the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. One of the emerging AI fields today is computer vision, which can potentially support many different applications delivering life-saving functionalities for patients.

     Computer vision is today assisting an increasing number of doctors to better diagnose their patients, monitor the evolution of diseases, and prescribe the right treatments. The technology not only helps medical professionals to save time on routine tasks and give more time to the patients.

    The implications of computer vision for medical use based on tasks such as medical imaging analysis, predictive analysis, or patients monitoring suggest a host of benefits to the healthcare industry.

 

5) What is computer vision?

The emerging field of computer vision focuses on training computers to replicate human sight and the understanding of objects in front of it. To accomplish that, computer vision takes advantage of artificial intelligence algorithms that process images.

The goal of computer vision in patient monitoring is to make a faster and more accurate diagnosis than a physician could make. Currently, the most widespread use cases for computer vision and patient monitoring are related to the field of radiology and imaging. AI-powered solutions are finding increasing support among doctors because of their diagnosis of diseases and conditions from various scans such as X-ray, and MR, or CT.

Physicians who take advantage of the computer vision technology will be able to analyse a wide range of health and fitness metrics to make better medical decisions. Today, such tools are used by healthcare centres that measure blood loss during surgery, e.g. during C-section procedures.

Moreover, the technology can also be used to measure body fat percentage of people using images taken with regular cameras. Computer vision offers a wide range of applications in patient monitoring, bringing doctors closer to their patients, helping them to save time on analysing images, and providing them with more accurate data to work with.

6) Applications of computer vision in patient monitoring

1. Measuring blood loss accurately

2. Identifying problems faster

3. More precise diagnoses

4. Timely identification of diseases

5. Medical imaging

6. More efficient medical processes

7. Nuclear medicine

 

7) The future of computer vision in patient monitoring

As the healthcare industry embraces more innovations and cutting-edge technologies, it will surely direct its gaze to computer vision. The technology offers assistance in many different areas of the medical practice, starting from the analysis of medical imaging to offering accurate data about phenomena that are hard to measure.

In the future, we’re going to see an increasing number of healthcare institutions experiment with computer vision to deliver better services.

 

 Blog From:

1).Namrata Magadum

2). Anuradha Lohar 

3). Vivek Magre

4). Ashutoshkumar Jha