The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 2 (Apr 2015) | Page 18
Industry News
Oxehealth Advances Baby Safety
with Camera-based Vital Signs
Monitoring
New technology, successfully trialled at
Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, will drive
a significant change in baby monitoring.
abilities to monitor key vital signs continuously in the neonatal intensive care
unit (NICU).
Oxehealth, a camera-based health monitoring company, has developed software
that will enable a new generation of
smart video baby monitors to measure
a baby’s vital signs without the need for
physical contact or wearable devices.
The accuracy of the product met the
clinical standards expected of a medical
product, opening the door to a whole
new world of neonatal camera-based
health monitoring possibilities.
Oxehealth’s technology promises to revolutionise the world of baby monitoring
– turning a passive video monitor into
one that provides genuinely useful health
information
Using its technology, video baby monitors will be able to measure the heart and
respiratory rate of a baby remotely. The
technology will send accurate alerts to
parents or caregivers when it detects sudden changes in vital signs, allowing them
to react to potential health risks that otherwise would not be visible.
The software, which has been successfully trialled at the John Radcliffe Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, demonstrated its
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April 2015
“Virtually every new parent in the UK
buys a baby monitor when they first have
a child, and some will buy multiple monitors as they seek to find the best on the
market,” said Jonathan Chevallier, chief
executive at Oxehealth.
“Many current monitors with their passive audio/visual feedback do not provide warnings of problems – other than
baby distress. Building vital signs monitoring into these devices would enable
constant feedback to parents on the
baby’s heartbeat and breathing rate, providing considerable reassurance to parents and early warnings of any problems.
This is a huge step forward in infant
monitoring.”
The ability to monitor babies’ vital signs
without the need for contact is also a
significant advantage in baby safe vital
signs monitoring. Contact-based devices
can be uncomfortable and irritate delicate skin, especially among pre-term
infants. Using camera technology can