Palomar Health will unveil a wireless device this week that will change the way patients are monitored in the hospital. The device, built by San Diego's Sotera Wireless, will let doctors and nurses keep track of patient vital signs on tablets and smart phones.
The ViSi Mobile monitoring system features a mobile phone-sized monitor that's attached to a patient's wrist. The device is fed information through sensors on the chest and thumb, and a blood pressure cuff.
It provides continuous monitoring of a patient's vital signs, including heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels.
Orlando Portale, Palomar's chief innovation officer, said patients will like the new system.
"Since we're able to monitor them non-invasively now and continuously, we don't have to interrupt them at all, we don't have to send a nurse in the room on a periodic basis," Portale explained.
Doctors say real-time data will give them earlier warning of when a patient is going downhill.
All of the information will be stored in the patient's electronic medical record.
Palomar will be the first health system in the world to use the technology.
