High-risk patients, especially people who have recently suffered from a stroke, require constant monitoring of vital health parameters for a certain period. For now, this means spending an extra week or so at the hospital.
Soon, this may not be the case. A number of hospitals, research centres and start-ups are coming up with devices that will monitor the patient’s vitals and alert them in case of abnormalities.
Some devices will even directly contact the hospital in case of an emergency.
“There is one device in particular, manufactured in the US, which the patient wears like a patch on her body. It constantly measures the heart rate, blood pressure and even ECGs and transmits it directly to the doctor’s mobile, but very few doctors in India recommend this because of the cost,” general physician Guganath Sivakadakshan said.
Jagan Mohan from the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute says his team is working on a low-cost wearable solution. “The issue with the reduction in size is that there is a compromise when it comes to sensitivity of the device,” he said.
To ensure there is no compromise when it comes to sensitivity, their devices have a series of sensors with varying levels of sensitivity that can be changed around depending on the patient’s needs, he said.
There are even a number of start-ups that are developing products.
Deepak Prashanth Kumaraswamy, who is working on a device that will alert hospitals when a high-risk patient needs help, said, “We need some kind of a call centre that connects the hospital to the patient. This involves more logistics.
(Reporting by Kavita Kishore)
