Wearable Device To Save Lives In Battlefield
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עברית (Hebrew)
When a person is injured, one of the first things a doctor does is measure their vital signs – heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature and more. But the manual methods for measuring could be challenging, especially when in the heart of a mass-casualty event or a battlefield with dozens of people crying for help.
Cambridge Design Partnership has found a solution to this problem by initiating the First Response Monitor project. This is the first ever wearable device designed to measure the vital signs of patients with multiple trauma in disasters and battlefield situations.
Respiratory rate is often neglected by automated monitoring systems and has been described as the “forgotten bio-sign,” as many existing wearable monitors focus on heart rate alone and those that do measure respiratory rate have low accuracy or are difficult to use in an emergency situation. However, the benefits of accurately monitoring respiratory rate are clear, and when combined with other parameters can indicate life-threatening conditions.
The small device clips onto a patient’s nose and monitors breathing rate and heart rate. The company says that this enables the medic to focus their efforts on providing care rather than taking measurements, and also enables the care giver to understand how the patient’s condition has changed over time. The data can then be transmitted using Bluetooth to a Smartphone app or tablet for analysis.
True, the device was designed for mass-casualty events but could be applied to other fields, such as civilian medicine, sports (for measuring performances) and more. No doubt that this device will help save human lives in a wide range of situations and environments.
