A clinical study of EarlySense, a non-invasive continuous monitoring solution, showed that it can effectively spot respiratory depression, according to a poster presented at the 2018 American Thoracic Society Conference.
While the study highlighted the use of the under-mattress system among hospitalized opioid-dependent patients, the same technology could serve people with a range of conditions in different types of settings.
The Early Sense study included 160,000 hours of monitoring with 91 events of respiratory depression. Seventy percent of those events were correctly classified as respiratory depression or sleep apnea-related. According to the investigators, who are both EarlySense employees, the alarm set off just one false alarm per 5,000 hours of monitoring. The company reported long-term care units had the lowest incidence rate of respiratory depression, while post-op units had the highest.
“This data highlights the value and accuracy of EarlySense analytics to provide health teams with an effective tool to monitor and improve care for patients at risk of respiratory depression,” said Zvika Shinar, chief scientist of EarlySense. “Continuously monitoring the respiratory signal provides a rich data set that enables delivery of highly actionable insights to clinicians.”
