by Ben Best
None of the companies that claimed in 2004 to have wireless vital sign monitoring alarm systems on the market this year have fulfilled that promise. But the promises do look better now than they did in 2004 -- although Digital Angel (http://www.digitalangelcorp.com ) appears to have abandoned ambitions along these lines in favor of tracking animals.
EKGuard (http://www.ekguard.com/)has a 3-electrode system that attaches to the body. EKGuard is not a wireless cardiac monitor, however. It is a hand-held EKG device. TO contact their Call Center you need access to a telephone. The system iscurrently only available in 3 states: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It should be available throughout the United States some time in 2006. The device costs $499 and the monthly fee for Call Center support is $69. Call Center support for push-button alarm systems is currently one-quarter to one-half this price. With greater volume of sales the Call Center support for EKGuard and comparable systems should be expected to drop. And the cost of the devices themselves should drop, much as has been the case with cell phones. But this will take a few years.
BodyMedia(http://www.bodymedia.com/products/biotransceiver.jsp) has a monitoring system that is worn on the arm like an arm-band. Currently the product is sold for athletes wanting to monitor their physiological performance, but the company is planning an emergency wireless alarm system for late 2006.
The Canadian company Medical Intelligence (http://www.medicalintelligence.ca/en/index.html) which was expecting a cardiac monitoring alarm system on the market in 2005 is now saying the system will be available in Canada and the US at the end of 2006. The VPS/W-ECG(Vital PositioningSystem/Wearable-ECG) device is worn around the waist like a belt, and it monitors the heart through electrodes that contact the skin. It will have GPS so the victim can be located if the heart stops. If the victim is able to speak, he or she can talk to the Call Center. The device is expected to cost about $750 and the monthly Call Center support is expected to cost $40-$45, but these figures are guesses.
Pulse oximetry is the measurement of SpO2, Spot Oxygen saturation of the blood. Arterial blood is normally saturated to 95-100% of its maximum oxygen carrying capacity at sea level. A pulse oximeter detects pulse blood, ie, arteerial blood, and measures the oxygen saturation by shining a bright red light through a finger-tip or ear-lobe, determining how much light is absorbed. Bright red oxygenated blood allows most of the red light to pass through the finger-tip or ear-lobe. A pulse oximeter can give warning when SpO2 becomes critically low, as happens in cardiac conditions that develop more gradually than sudden cardiac arrest Ideally, a pulse oximeter would be small enough to be worn as an ear-ring and have the capacity to wirelessly alert a Call Center if there is a problem. Unfortunately, the FDA requires that pulse oximeters can only obtained by prescription.
The biggest name manufacturer for pulse oximetry is Nonin (short for NON-INvasive, http://www.nonin.com/) Nonin has a series of pulse oximeters, including the Wrist Ox 3100 which can be connected by a short cord to a device capping a fingertip. Detailed information about Nonin products can be found on the Nonin website. Nonin does not sell directly to the public, but their products can be purchased online from AeromedixRX(http://www.aeromedixrx.com/ ).The WristOx starter kit costs $1,225. Prescriptions are required to purchase, but their staff physician will give you a prescription upon request during your on-line check-out. Some of their pulse oximeters have alarms, but none have a wireless connection to an emergency Call Center.
MedicTouch mPOD (http://www.medictouch.net/wearable.html) is a pulse-oximetry cell-telephone-like device. It is anticipated that it will soon be available for wireless connection to emergency Call Centers. MDKeeper(http://www.tadlifecare.com/index.php?id=197 is worn like a watch and has biosensors to monitor ECG (one lead), SpO2 and heart rate. The device can generate alarms in response to vital signs or in response to a push button -- and it supports voice communication with a Call Center. Release to market is expected in the first half of 2006.
LifeShirt (http://www.vivometrics.com/site/system.html --described in my 2004 report) is also expected to become available in 2006, although this system is much more sophisticated than would be required for detecting the presence or absence of a few vital signs. CodeBlue (Harvard, http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/proj/codeblue/),
Lifeguard (Stanford, http://lifeguard.stanford.edu/ )and MMST (University of California, San Diego, http://mmst.ucsd.edu/
In Decemeber 2005 none of the companies that claimed in 2004 to have wireless vital sign monitoring alarm systems on the market have fulfilled that promise. But the promises do look better now than they did in 2004 -- although Digital Angel (http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/) appears to have abandoned ambitions along these lines in favor of tracking animals.
EKGuard (http://www.ekguard.com/) has a 3-electrode system that attaches to the body. EKGuard is not a wireless cardiac monitor, however. It is a hand-held EKG device. To contact their Call Center you need access to a telephone. The system is already widely used in Israel, but is currently only available in 3 states: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. It should be available throughout the United States some time in 2006. The device costs $499 and the monthly fee for Call Center support is $69. Call Center support for push-button alarm systems is currently one-quarter to one-half this price, partly because the EKGuard Call Center has a staff Cardiologist who is available to analyze data coming from the devices. This is of great advantage because it can warn of heart problems prior to cardiac arrest and allow for rapid intervention to prevent cardiac arrest. With greater volume of sales the Call Center support for EKGuard and comparable systems should be expected to drop. And the cost of the devices themselves should drop, much as has been the case with cell phones. But this will take a few years.
BodyMedia (http://www.bodymedia.com/products/biotransceiver.jsp) has a monitoring system that is worn on the arm like an arm-band. Currently the product is sold for athletes wanting to monitor their physiological performance, but the company is planning an emergency wireless alarm system for late 2006.
The Canadian company Medical Intelligence (http://www.medicalintelligence.ca/en/index.html) which was expecting a cardiac monitoring alarm system on the market in 2005 is now saying the system will be available in Canada and the US at the end of 2006. The VPS/W−ECG (Vital Positioning System/Wearable−ECG) device is worn around the waist like a belt, and it monitors the heart through electrodes that contact the skin. It will have GPS so the victim can be located if the heart stops. If the victim is able to speak, he or she can talk to the Call Center. The device is expected to cost about $750 and the monthly Call Center support is expected to cost $40−$45, but these figures are guesses.
Pulse oximetry is the measurement of SpO2, Spot Oxygen saturation of the blood. Arterial blood is normally saturated to 95−100% of its maximum oxygen carrying capacity at sea level. A pulse oximeter detects pulse blood, ie, arterial blood, and measures the oxygen saturation by shining a bright red light through a finger-tip or ear-lobe, determining how much light is absorbed. Bright red oxygenated blood allows most of the red light to pass through the finger-tip or ear-lobe. A pulse oximeter can give warning when SpO2 becomes critically low, as happens in cardiac conditions that develop more gradually than sudden cardiac arrest (including conditions of low oxygen, such as a gas leak or a high-altitude flight). Ideally, a pulse oximeter would be small enough to be worn as an ear-ring and have the capacity to wirelessly alert a Call Center if there is a problem. Unfortunately, the FDA requires that pulse oximeters can only obtained by prescription.
The biggest name manufacturer for pulse oximetry is Nonin (short for NON-INvasive, http://www.nonin.com/). Nonin has a series of pulse oximeters, including the Wrist Ox 3100 which can be connected by a short cord to a device capping a fingertip. Detailed information about Nonin products can be found on the Nonin website. Nonin does not sell directly to the public, but their products can be purchased online from AeromedixRX (http://www.aeromedixrx.com/). The WristOx starter kit costs $1,225. Prescriptions are required to purchase, but their staff physician will give you a prescription upon request during your on-line check-out. Some of their pulse oximeters have alarms, but none have a wireless connection to an emergency Call Center.
MedicTouch mPOD (http://www.medictouch.net/wearable.html) is a pulse-oximetry cell-telephone-like device. It is anticipated that it will soon be available for wireless connection to emergency Call Centers.
MDKeeper (http://www.tadlifecare.com/index.php?id=197 is worn like a watch and has biosensors to monitor ECG (one lead), SpO2 and heart rate. The device can generate alarms in response to vital signs or in response to a push button -- and it supports voice communication with a Call Center. Release to market is expected in the first half of 2006.
LifeShirt (http://www.vivometrics.com/site/system.html -- described in my 2004 report) is also expected to become available in 2006, although this system is much more sophisticated than would be required for detecting the presence or absence of a few vital signs. This is also true for a number of systems being developed at universities, including
CodeBlue (Harvard, http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/proj/codeblue/),
Lifeguard (Stanford, http://lifeguard.stanford.edu/) and MMST (University of California, San Diego, http://mmst.ucsd.edu/).